The Warhammer Effect: Collateral Misfortunes
by BKGeno
Summary: In the future, where there is only war, sometimes desperate measures must be taken to secure the survival of a few. But when that measure leads to a place far different from what they know, can the Eldar adapt to a new reality, where there is more than only war? Also, what is a monkey? Picture by timokujansuu on Deviantart.
1. The Beginning of the End

**Chapter 1 - Beginning of the End**

Five figures sat in a darkened room, around a table covered haphazardly in tiles, many blank, some covered in runes. All five were examining the table before them, before leaning back and exchanging looks. "So, that is it then. Farseer Calinthos failed, and his host is falling back to the Webway gates."

"We knew the possibility for failure was high, but this is…"

The speaker paused, and shook their head. The third figure spoke. "Enough. Let us see what must be done to mitigate this disaster before it consumes us."

All five gestured in unison, the rune covered tiles rising into the air, mixing and swirling about in a swarm of random movement. After a moment, again as one, the five gestured and the tiles dropped. Many fell from the table, more landed rune side down, but the ones that landed rune side up would show them their path. After a moment, though, the second speaker leaned back. "No, I refuse to accept this."

The fourth figure glanced at the second, and spoke in a voice as calm as a dead world. "The craftworld is lost. That is clear. All paths lead to that."

The third figure leaned forward and pointed to the runes those two were focused on. All the rune paths lead to the three runes for craftworld, destruction and significant damage. They could try throwing the runes again, but all of them knew they would only get the same result, regardless of how often they tried. However, before anyone descended into despair, the fifth figure, the only male in the room, spoke. "There appear to be two different eventual outcomes."

He gestured, effortlessly lifting the surrounding pieces straight up so they could more clearly view the section in question. There were actually two major paths in, one on the destruction side, one on the significant damage side. Once he had pointed out the slight difference, he returned the pieces. "And significant or critical damage to the craftworld is far preferable to its total destruction. Let us see what paths we have available to us still."

All five turned to the path of damage, rather than destruction, and quickly realized that most of the paths that branched and intertwined with it led from damage, rather than toward. After nearly two hours, they all moved from the table in unison. The first speaker stood up. "I will gather the other seers and warlocks. This must be discussed."

The other four nodded, before turning back to the table as the fourth spoke her piece. "So, we must use… that abomination again."

She was referring to an attempt at avoiding a possible future where the craftworld was destroyed, involving an abandoned Webway Gate that had a path much deeper into the Webway than any other. All that was known was that the gate in question had no other connections, and whatever was on the other end, it couldn't be reached by other gates, and that no one who had ever entered it had returned. They had tried, millennia ago, to avert the craftworld's destruction by sending a host through it, based on a partial reading that had survived a Farseer's death throes during a scrying.

It hadn't worked, and the future in question had never happened, and more than five hundred thousand eldar souls had been lost for nothing. Including an entire Aspect Shrine and both their titan walkers. The Craftworld had never recovered from losing so many of their most talented warriors; never mind the unique equipment and their only Suin Daellae, or Wailing Doom wraith-sword, whose loss had prevented them from ever resummoning their avatar.

The other three nodded before the third speaker added her point. "Yes, but I find the section of runes leading to that more interesting. We finally have a use for the fool. Though the idea of giving him some of our best equipment is abhorrent, I suppose we can spare a few things."

The second speaker gave a delicate snort. "If he is even still alive. How goes his mission?"

The second speaker was talking to the only male, who concentrated, and then mentally winced. "Failing at being subtle."

* * *

It was a cool, calm morning on some forgotten forge world, no different from the previous one or the next. Until a cloaked figured dashed out of one of the hangars, running as fast as it could for the wall of the compound. Even as the figure burst from the building, alarms throughout the compound began to sound. The figure gave a soft hiss of displeasure as it kept sprinting, its voice betraying its gender as male despite the distortions from his helmet. "By Khaine's fist, I know disabled those alarms... Wait, what was on patrol nearby…?"

A glance behind him showed a fourteen meter tall figure stomping around the corner of the hangar he had just vacated. Its sinister shape was mostly obscured by the morning smog that lingered around the factories, but the fleeing figure could easily make out the reverse jointed legs, and the canine shaped head. He could also easily see the two weapons it carried, both slowly swinging about to target him. One was a barbaric looking, dual barreled cannon whose ends were starting to glow; the other was a double set of five barrel cannons that were slowly spinning up to firing speed. The figure gave a small nod. "Ah, right, titan."

Luckily for the fleeing figure, he had placed some… 'liberated' demolition charges in several places around the compound, 'borrowed' from a different manufactory across the planet. And even better, the titan was nearly standing on top of the parked hovertruck that was holding several of the bombs that had yet to be distributed amongst the hangars. The figure yanked a device from his cloak, frantically slapped in a code while still sprinting, and then pushed the now glowing red button on the top of the device.

Despite being nearly a quarter of a kilometer from the demolition charge, the blast still had enough power to pick him up and fling him head over heels. As he tumbled, the large cloak flapped free, revealing dark grey curved plates attached to a black mesh undersuit, and a pointed helmet with glowing red optics. The eldar form twisted as it flew, and managed to land upright, but couldn't stick the landing and had to drop to a hand to help stabilize himself as he slid to a stop.

As he stopped, he glanced up and grinned inside his helmet, before yanking his cloak back around him. The titan was destroyed, the left half simply gone. Better, the main target, an even larger titan standing in scaffolding in the hangar he had left, had been completely blown apart by a different demolition charge, and the interior of that hangar was merrily incinerating what little remained.

Even better, the two hangars used for other titans to be repaired or constructed were also burning, one of them outright collapsed. Even as he watched, the hangar that was by the destroyed patrolling titan slowly lost its battle against gravity, and collapsed. With a smirk, he turned and resumed his dash for the wall of the compound, where his jetbike waited. He just had to get to the top of the wall, and then over to where he had parked it. And he had to do it before the main power plant of the compound overloaded and turned the area into radioactive ash and a crater.

* * *

The four Farseers finished their scrying of the focus in their runes, and exchanged a look. The fourth one spoke first. "THAT is the one we must trust to forge our path? I am… hesitant."

The third resumed scrying on her own, and watched him climb the wall of the compound while evading fire from the facilities infantry, a small group of red shirted infantry that made extensive use of cybernetics. "He is… undeniably effective, but definitely not someone that would do well with a host."

The second was also watching on her own, as he jumped onto his jetbike and flew off, and snarled something uncomplimentary as the titan factory exploded in nuclear fury behind him. "He might be effective, but… why is he putting dark glasses over his helmet optics? Never mind, better question, are we sure he is sane? With everything else that must happen, the last thing we need is him to fall while we rely on him."

The fourth Farseer spoke again, the fifth simply observing the runes and listening. "The runes have shown us the path. All we can do is walk it as best we can, and doubts do not help."

The male Farseer finally spoke. "I just ordered him to return for a long mission. Also congratulations for a successful mission, though it might not have been how we would prefer it."

The second Farseer turned back to the fifth. "Congratulations for what? He was told to be subtle. And a nuclear explosion is anything but. Especially in the middle of a titan factory."

The male Farseer turned simply nodded in agreement at her points. "Correct, but they have no idea who did it. The explosives he used came from the other side of the same planet. They have no reason to suspect an eldar, any more than they can suspect a tau, a fallen mon-keigh, or one of our fallen brethren."

That comment earned a reluctant nod from the second Farseer, but before any other points could be called up, the first Farseer returned. "The rest of the seers and the warlocks are not satisfied by my news, and wish to be present when we recast the runes."

The four Farseers that had remained simply nodded. "Acceptable. For the Craftworld."

 _Edit Notes (30 September 2017) - Minor wording tweaks, fixed W40k lore issue._

 _(24 November 2017) - another lore fix._


	2. A New Mission

**Chapter 2 - A New Mission**

 **A/N -** _To differentiate between talking in your head to someone and talking out loud, will use different markers._

" _speech" | *mental speech/thoughts*_

 _For the Craftworld!_

With a soft hum, a jetbike powered down and settled onto the floor of the hangar. After a moment, the driver slowly dismounted, and pulled his helmet off, letting his mid back length black hair out. The driver, clearly male from his visage, took a moment to carefully rebind his hair into a single, elegant but simple braid, before beginning to work on his jetbike. It was an older model, having been found in the corner of a hangar, abandoned for who knew how long, even by his people's standards, and while it wasn't as fast or maneuverable as the newest ones, it was good enough for him. That it carried heavier than normal firepower was the main reason he kept it, and the extra armor didn't hurt.

He smirked to himself at that thought, before finishing the last check of the bike, and putting his helmet back on. With his helm on, he was just another eldar warrior in service of the Craftworld. With the helm off, however, he was the Fool. The Fickle Chance-Dancer. A Pathless One. But he preferred his real name, Arlas.

Despite the urgency of the command to return to the Craftworld, he had still taken nearly a standard month to get back to the webway gate in the bowels of the forge world, on the other side of the planet. Security had been tightened considerably after the explosion, and the Imperial Guard had been called in to assist with containing the massive riots that had been sparked by the explosion, and the Chaos cults that would have toppled the world came out of hiding early. Now they would fail, and the forge world would continue to produce things for the Imperium, but not titans.. He had been the last eldar ranger on the planet when he had finally made it to the concealed webway gate, and had allowed himself a sigh of relief as he had piloted his bike into the briefly glowing portal embedded in it.

Now, he was just another eldar warrior, though the massive rifle on his back and the cameleoline cloak he wore marked him as an Outcast. But he was back home, and could relax, and enjoy the gentle psychic singing of the Infinity Circuit throughout the ship, the graceful movements of his kin, and the soft sounds of the Craftworld. Not at all like the barbaric, loud, brutish human worlds. But even those were infinitely better than the unbearable Orks worlds, or the completely dead Necron worlds.

Arlas paused in the largest of the growing habitats, admiring the elegant, orderly rows of plants, before resuming his trek to the Infinity Circuit. He had to deliver the other half of his mission, nearly a dozen spirit stones stolen from the mon-keigh archmagos' home. He had then gone on to cause the explosion of the titan factory to prevent the building of titans there, which would eventually be used to break one of the other craftworlds' hosts. Now, all he had to do was hand over the eleven reclaimed spirit stones to one of the Farseers, before getting to visit the armory to replace his stock of explosives and heading out on his next mission.

So it was with some surprise that he entered the Infinity Circuit chamber, and spotted the full Inner Council waiting for him. The five senior Farseers, both supreme commanders, and all ten senior exarchs. Equally surprising was the fact that the chamber had been cleared, as near as he could tell, of all personnel not in the Inner Council. He allowed himself a brief pause, before approaching the Farseers, as was customary. He stopped in front of the eldest Farseer, and bowed to her.

"I return from my wandering among primitives, stars, and darkness, to once again take my place amongst my kin. I have recovered some of those thought lost, and return them to our ancestors, to ever offer advice and counsel to those that still fight."

Despite him following the ceremony, he was a bit disturbed by the fact the Farseer didn't respond, she simply held out her hand for the soulstones. He offered the small pouch containing the dozen stones, before stepping back. The Farseers formed a half circle, no doubt discussing the stones psychically, and the two supreme commanders moved away from the seers and each other, taking their own council of five exarchs each with them. Suddenly extremely conscious of the fact that he was the only one in the room not in a group of five, Arlas simply waited, hoping to be dismissed.

Sadly, he was not, though after a few hours of waiting, the only male Farseer, and one of only three men in the room counting Arlas, plucked a stone from the bag. The male Farseer then gestured for Arlas to follow him, as they moved to one side. They moved to a small garden inside the Infinity Circuit chamber, overlooking one of the large growths that made it up.

After a short while, merely a quarter of an hour, of contemplating the gem in his hands and the Infinity Circuit, the Farseer spoke. "We have a new mission for you, one that will possibly take far longer, and likely far, far further, than we have ever sent you before."

The Farseer paused, as if trying to gather his thoughts or decide how to explain, but Farseers did not need that. Arlas knew that as a fact, they were lost on the Path of the Seer, and knew in their very soul, how to best serve the Craftworld. After a moment, the Farseer resumed speaking. "You will be equipped with the best we have. Armor, weapons, a transport and ship, all will be grown, crafted and provided to suit you and your mission."

Another pause, and Arlas was slowly coming to realization that the impossible was happening, that the Farseer could not see the way to guide him to where the Craftworld required. So he did what he could to assist. "What is my mission, honored Farseer? I live to serve the Craftworld."

That statement seemed to be what the Farseer was waiting for, his shoulders straightening slightly and his head turning to the pathfinder. "Your mission is to scout the path through the Webway Gate Elisphan, on the Edge of the Eye of Terror. If possible, go through the web path, and scout what lies beyond. The Craftworld and its fleet will follow you through, regardless of whether you report back or not. Be thorough in your inspection of the webway, and be sure to report everything. The Craftworld will be helpless in the webway, but our only other choice is to let our Craftworld, our home, die."

Arlas simply blinked at the sudden severity of his mission, but the resources they mentioned implied he was going to be doing this regardless. "What about my squad? I can think of a couple rangers, maybe even a Harlequin that might be willing to come with me. And if I am going to have a ship and a transport, I am going to need a pilot, maybe even two for the different vessels."

Arlas really hoped that the Harlequin would be busy, she was the most quiet, stealthy person he had ever met, and also one of the damn few people that scared him just from being in their presence. So he had mixed feelings as the Farseer replied. "No, you will be heading out alone. The runes were clear, more than you and the spirit stone pilot, and you fail. You will deploy after ensuring your equipment and training are still acceptable. If not sooner."

The Farseer did turn and offer the soulstone. "This contains your pilot and wraithbone singer. She can provide guidance on maintaining and caring for the wraithbone vehicles you will be using."

Arlas stared at the gemstone for a moment, fully understanding what was not being said. If something went wrong, there would be two eldar souls lost, not just his own. So his usual antics wouldn't be quite so acceptable on the field. He had few problems taking a more… lackadaisical approach than most of his kin, but only when his own life was on the line. But after a moment, he carefully accepted the stone, and slotted it into the spare spirit gem slot on his armor.

The sensation of feeling another mind was difficult to describe, especially one that suddenly just 'appeared' next to him, but he didn't turn. Instead, he moved to one of the many small seats, benches, and other sitting arrangements scattered about the Infinity Circuit garden, and waited for his 'partner' to adjust to suddenly being back in reality. Time didn't really have a meaning to those lacking bodies, so the conversation was probably going to take a while.

Eventually, his new partner seemed to become aware of him, and her attention turned to him. She didn't speak, not with a voice that he could hear with his ears, but one he heard with his mind. * _So… you are the one... I am to travel... with and assist…_ *

* * *

Several hours later, Arlas stepped out of the Infinity Circuit chambers, and headed to toward the main armory. He hadn't learned much from his partner, only that her name was Yol'Pvera, and that she had been a veteran fighter and transport pilot, before becoming a wraithbone singer specializing in building ships, after an injury sustained in battle had made her unable to pilot. She had mentioned being an artist before becoming a pilot, but very little other personal information had been revealed. She had, however, been capable of piloting most everything the Craftworld could make, so she could take over the role of pilot for him. Which was just as well, as he was a sniper in his soul.

Still, it was annoying to him to have another in his armor, since he wasn't an exarch or Farseer. Due to the fact he spent a large amount of time by himself, his thoughts tended to spread to whatever they wanted, despite the discipline that had been imposed on him during his centuries among the three different Aspect Shrines he had tried. The fact he had been through the Warp Spider, Striking Scorpion, and Warlock shrines had surprised his guest, but she had retreated to her own thoughts after learning he had more than four centuries as a Ranger and Pathfinder.

As far as he knew, his tendency to dabble with the shrines was uncommon, but hardly rare. He personally knew of at least two dozen others that had tried even more shrines than he had, and hundreds that had tried more than at least a couple. Maybe he was just the first she had personally encountered.

With a mental shrug, he entered the armory, and cast about for the armory master. Just because the Eldar grew their weapons and armor specifically for the individual didn't mean there weren't times when one had to replace a weapon or piece of armor quickly, and just grabbing a spare would work. In his case, he was seeking the wraithbone singer in charge of assisting in suit repairs and construction. The Singer would help the new suit of armor grow quicker, as well as get a few of the more esoteric pieces of equipment he would need for it.

As far as he knew, only Autarchs got to build suits like he was getting to, instead of only getting to take the designs of their Aspect Shrine and make them more fitting for the individual. While it was quite an honor, he was also aware that he was very likely to die or worse, and that this was not an elevation to the illustrious but unenviable position of Autarch. And that, after he returned to the Craftworld, he would likely have to return all the equipment he had gotten for the mission.

After a few psychic questions to the various armory staff, he located the Singer he was seeking, and that his name was, in fact, StarSinger. Singer was issuing orders to three of his senior staff as Arlas approached, all of them helmetless, though only two had the characteristic horns on their belts that let the wraithbone singers control and repair wraithbone constructs. He even got to listen in on the armory master's orders as he walked forward. "Tilden, get the vehicular wraithbone seeds ready, at least two. Mariua, I want at least a dozen weapon seeds, and a half dozen armor seeds prepared. Olothin, ensure at least one piece of all the specialized equipment the Pathfinder is cleared for is ready and fully charged. I don't want to have to send a runner for missing pieces again."

The second figure facing the lead Singer glanced at Arlas, before nodding slightly, directing the other's attention his way. After a glance, the lead Singer dismissed his subordinate armory masters, and turned toward Arlas, gracing him with a once over. "Pathfinder. You are earlier than expected."

Arlas did not physically shrug or nod, little needless movements like those were the failings of the mon-keigh, not the Eldar. Instead, he sent a psychic shrug as he replied. "My partner didn't need much time from me."

The Singer simply sent a feeling of understanding psychically, and turned to head after his subordinates. "I was given a brief summary on your mission, and the shrines you had experience with. However, nothing of your preferences so we could begin building your armor and weapons."

The words were emotionless, as was normal, but the psychic emanations were a slurry of confusion, annoyance, pride, confidence, and a trace of fear. Arlas easily picked up on what was causing which. Annoyance at the lack of information, confusion at the haste, pride that his armory was chosen, confidence that he and his could outfit Arlas, and the fear was because, while the Singer was old by Eldar standards, he was no fool, and knew that such a outfitting did not happen. Therefore, something was happening that required the making of something... 'unique.'

Arlas sent back soothing confidence and understanding, absently assisting the Singer. "Mobility, concealment, protection are the defensive priorities, in order. Weapon preferences will be whatever I can fit in my vehicle and decide to bring with me for that mission. The vehicles, however, I have no experience with other than my jetbike, so Yol'Pvera will likely have to assist with their designs."

The Singer sent back satisfaction and confidence, tinged with annoyance at being soothed by someone less than a third his age. The Singer held out his hand, and was immediately handed the spirit stone, which he slotted into a recess on his chest plate. No doubt the Singer immediately started conversing with Yol'Pvera, but still kept up his conversation with Arlas. "So you were experienced with the Warp Spiders, Striking Scorpions and Warlocks before you left to be an Outcast, correct?"

Arlas replied with a feeling of satisfaction and the Singer kept talking. "So, with the full armory open to you, what would be your perfect armor your upcoming mission? Start with the helm."

Arlas permitted himself a small smile as he responded. "A ghost helm with Striking Scorpion mandiblasters, a Dark Reaper rangefinder, and incorporated but detachable vision enhancement goggles."

He could feel amusement pouring off the Singer at the sheer amount of equipment crammed into the helm. "And here I was worried you would be hard to convince to take everything you would need."

Arlas continued, though he could feel the amusement thickening with each item he named. "Main armor would be runic armor with a mesh undersuit and carapace arm and leg guards, supplemented by a Warp Spider jump pack."

The last item actually broke the Singer's amusement, shock and concern supplanting the amusement, before those were replaced with cautious agreement. "Yes, the last should be possible, but do remember the dangers of using it. Perhaps keep it as a last resort only? Last thing we need is you vanishing due to overstressing the pack. What about runes, and perhaps swap out the carapace armor with wraithbone?"

Arlas had his turn at being surprised, before adding cautious agreement. "I was not a Farseer, so I thought those items would be forbidden to me. I also have little experience with any runes beyond scrying attempts."

Amusement and reproach. "You did request a Dark Reaper rangefinder. And ghost helms are usually reserved for Farseers as well. Though using a jump pack, I can see why you would want one."

Firm agreement from the Pathfinder. "I also would like to have a minimal silhouette so the usual fins and similar would need to be removed."

The Singer allowed himself a hum of agreement, his brow furrowed as he contemplated the difficult job ahead of him, but all Arlas could feel from him was a feel of enjoyment and satisfaction at being challenged. After a moment of contemplation, the Singer resumed the conversation. "Olothin is readying all the requested equipment, and the elder Farseer has approved the… unorthodox equipment. Also, we will need your cloak."

Arlas stripped the cameleoline cloak off, and handed it over without a thought. The Singer took it, and carefully draped it over one arm before resuming the conversation. "Weapons?"

Arlas sent back amusement and a feel of firm control, though the Singer could easily guess Arlas had held back a sassy response. Or more likely, several. "My long rifle to start, a better replacement for my older shuriken pistol. As many grenades of as many types as I can fit into my transport. A melee weapon would be wise, one handed blade is what I was trained with. A flamer, single handed version if possible, and fusion gun, a death spinner, and..."

The Pathfinder paused, before frowning. "Actually, I believe that is all the weapons I am trained with. I thought there were more."

The Singer was radiating amusement again. "And are you going to be going into each battle with all those weapons, or would you like an area in the transport to hold the extras? And which grenades do you want? We have six types, and you have limited space."

Arlas gave the Singer a flat look, though he was enjoying himself as they entered the area where his equipment would be assembled. "Holding slots, please. I will likely take three or four weapons at a time, if you count the blade. And I would like haywire, plasma, and melta grenades. Oh, and a small supply of shimmer grenades."

The Singer was nodding. "Fair enough. However, there is an issue. Where the Farseers are sending you, we know nothing about the other side. So instead of your jetbike, I suggest replacing it with a modified Vyper for moving around planets at Yol'Pvera's request, and your main vessel will be a modified Vampire Raider for orbital movement. For moving from systems to systems, however, that will be something that the Fleet Mistress will be providing."

Arlas couldn't contain his shock and surprise, and simply stared at the Singer. The armory master's amusement only got stronger. "Even so, it won't be as large as a proper Raider, hopefully we can get it down to nearly half the size and only a third the weight. We are currently experimenting with the design, but we think it will be about…"

Arlas was quickly lost in a bombardment of numbers and statistics that didn't really make sense to him, but he just let his confusion and acceptance flow, and the Singer eventually took pity on him. "To simplify, slightly shorter, somewhat less lengthy, a bit less wide. Will be over armed, but where you are going, too much firepower is likely not an issue. Armaments will be a scatter laser on the nose in a rotating weapon mount, a pulsar hard mounted to the spine of the craft, and twin linked pulse lasers housed on hardpoints on the wings, augmented by a crystal targeting matrix. Defenses are a titan grade holo-field, spirit stone mount for Yol'Pvera, star engines and vectored engines. All designed for the pilot to operate, while Yol'Pvera will navigate for longer journeys."

Singer glanced at Arlas, who was now back in the conversation, and while apprehensive about flying such a large craft, he felt he could easily learn. After all, he had piloted a jetbike for years, how much harder could a massive transport be? At least the Vyper would be a simple task, once he adjusted for the different mass. "Now, your Vyper is also going to be heavily modified from the basic chassis. Instead of an externally seated gunner, it will be a turret that you control, and Yol'Pvera will assist with navigation and making sure you don't fly into a wall again."

The Pathfinder rolled his eyes, no one had ever let him forget the one time he had clipped a wall while racing his jetbike. "It will be equipped with a shuriken cannon mounted under the cockpit, and the turret will have twin linked star cannons, again all augmented by a crystal targeting matrix. The turret will take some mastering, especially if you want to fly and shoot it at the same time, even with the matrix. Defenses are similar to the Raider, other than having a normal holo-field, instead of a titan grade one. Spirit stone mount, star engines and vectored engines."

Arlas nodded as he looked about the room they had just entered, and watched as the secondary singer began working on one of the small wraithbone 'seeds.' The seed was the size of his head, so the Pathfinder suspected it was either going to form the basis of his armor, or maybe be divided up into all the weapons he would be getting. After watching a moment, he turned back to the armory master. "Alright, we have discussed what I can do against ground targets, but what about moving from one system to another? The Vampire Raider isn't rated for that. Nor equipped, for that matter."

The Singer allowed his annoyance to show, but answered. "I already said, speak to the Fleet Mistress, she should have a ship to spare. I, however, have significant work to do. We will need Yol'Pvera to stay with us so we can ensure the vehicles are to her requirements."

Arlas gave the armory master a half serious salute, before leaving. With the more enjoyable part done, it was time go and figure out what wreck they were giving him to move around with, wherever he ended up. Sadly, this was more unfamiliar territory, so he did end up having to get directions several times. Once to get into the correct area, and once to figure out where Fleet Mistress Ulin was, and a few more after taking a wrong turn. A former Corsair, she had returned to the Craftworld nearly a millennia ago with her own fleet, and had quickly risen up to Fleet Mistress of the entire Craftworld defensive armada. She was also why the Craftworld had Corsair configured weapons and vehicles in their armories.

She was also and most definitely on the short list of women he knew that utterly terrified him. The list also included a Harlequin, an Imperial Inquisitor he had had the misfortune of running into, and an overly amorous Dark Eldar that thought he was the perfect toy. And the last one had promised to cut off his feet to keep him from running off if she had ever caught him. Still, he was fairly sure that Ulin wasn't out to get him. Or at least he hoped. He quickly reflected over every interaction with her to ensure she wasn't about to gut him with her power sword, pausing just outside the door to her lair, a combination of command center and her personal chambers.

* _Stop whingeing and get in here._ *

He recognized the mental voice, and quickly focused on not broadcasting every thought, doubt, and whatever else went through his mind, before opening the door. Fleet Mistress Ulin was sitting at her desk, reviewing a report while several displays showed her the status of the defensive armada, the Craftworld itself, and the system they were currently in. After a moment of waiting, she gestured to the seat across from her, and he took a seat while waiting for her to deign to grace him with her attention. Her eyes flickered up to meet his, annoyance briefly oozing from her, before she returned to her report.

Half an hour later, she finished, and finally deigned to grace him with her attention. Another flicker of annoyance slithered from her, before she spoke. "I don't approve of your mission. However, the Councils have spoken, so you are getting a ship. At worst, you are getting a dead ship. At best, you are getting one built for you. Now, what do you want, and expect, your possible ship to do? Impress me, grounder."

The last was a statement of fact, not an insult, though the only thing that kept it from being an insult was the lack of contempt coming from the Fleet Mistress. As it was, he didn't get offended. "Corvette sized vessel, small, fast, agile. Mostly point defenses, with a single main gun in case we run into something that we can't flee from. This is a scouting mission, not a fight."

He actually felt some grudging respect from the Fleet Mistress at his understanding of the requirements for his vessel. She quickly locked it down, but that she had allowed him to feel it meant he was no longer considered only an annoyance. "A Hemlock Destroyer."

He blinked, a hint of confusion at the sentence, before she slid a mobile display across the desk to him. He looked it over, and frowned. It matched his requests, but… "Concerned it will not be enough. Power requirements will be well above the normal thresholds. I might need to charge the engines and fire the main gun. Also, the defense turrets appear to only cover the front arcs. I might be running away from fleets, so being able to run and still shoot down their interceptors would be wise."

She graced him with what might have been a tiny smile, approval slowly permeating from her. She gave a nod, and slid a second display to him. This was a new ship, even to his inexperienced eyes, and he took several minutes to carefully read over the vessel. "New design, for the Craftworld at least, basically a fusion of the Nightshade Destroyer's main gun and Aconite Frigate weapon batteries. Almost an Aurora Class light cruiser, but still in the escort tonnage. Single fixed pulsar lance, weapon batteries taken from an Aconite Frigate. Enough firepower to turn a heavy cruiser into a hulk in a single barrage from a squadron, but still agile enough to avoid counter fire.

"Other Craftworlds already use them, call them the Hellebore Frigates. Yours, however, is getting extra weapon batteries and point defenses, as well as an extra solar sail for better speed and maneuverability, and a single launch bay for your transport. Crew of ten, provided by spirit stones. Also carrying a selection of Wraithguard for the crew to man in case of boarders.

"However, this will only said once, and I want this completely clear, you are not the captain. You may make recommendation and requests as the mission leader, but if you issue orders, the crew will ignore you. If they appear to follow them, it is because that is what they were going to do anyway."

Arlas kept his thought to himself, that he was being 'politely' told to 'leave the spirit crew alone.' Instead he simply nodded. The Fleet Mistress waited a moment, before allowing him to sense her annoyance. "That was a dismissal."

Arlas left the room, he most definitely did not flee from it and the wrathful Fleet Mistress residing within. No matter what she might think and the feeling of amused satisfaction coming from it might otherwise suggest. He sent off a short psychic message to the elder Farseer, letting him know that he was done with getting everything requisitioned. He then asked if there was anything else that the Farseer required, or if he should start visiting the various shrines to ensure his training and muscle memories were intact. All the Farseer sent back was an acknowledgement, so Arlas headed for the Warp Spider shrine first. Might as well start with the oldest memories first.

 _Edit - Feb 17, 2018 - Thanks to Ragnar92 for pointing out that archmagos run forgeworlds. Also added a point about why the rebellion required IG to assist the local forces._


	3. Setting Out

**Chapter 3 - Setting Out**

 **A/N** \- _A shoutout for all 34 followers and 13 favorites, bringing this story to my most popular one yet after only two chapters. Kinda impressive and sad at the same time. :P Also for the 1.75k+ visits. And the reviewers. Must always thank the reviewers. Also, I just wanna give a thanks to my beta, for putting up with the disaster this story was before they started giving me corrections. And that should be all the shoutouts, thanks, etc._

 _Anyhoo, with this chapter, we finally get to the end of the Warhammer 40k verse, and will hopefully only see it again in small, point of view parts._

 _For the Greater Good!_

It had been a humiliating time, relearning everything that he had thought he had remembered, but remembering things with his head and through muscle memory were two very different things. He had spent nearly three quarters of a year learning and relearning what he needed. He had spent three hours a day at each of the three shrines, retraining his skills and learning more, both with and without equipment. He had also spent three hours learning how to pilot the Vyper and Vampire Raider, and another four hours learning how his space ship worked and how to control it.

Fleet Mistress Ulin had been informed at their second meeting that if he was going to be on it, he will damn well do a job, or he shouldn't be allowed on. Her surprise had been so complete that she had actually recoiled slightly. Arlas was annoyed that apparently his alternate monikers had more sway than he had expected. He was now a passable ship master, or captain to other races, of both his modified Hellebore frigate and the Vampire Raider. He was also now acceptably proficient with the Vyper, and had improved enough with the new equipment to at least get grudging nods of approval from the exarchs of the three shrines.

Those grudging nods didn't mean they would allow him into squads fielded with the host; they were simply admitting he was good enough to run around on his own. The biggest improvement had come from the Warlock shrine, where he had actually got training directly from one of the Farseers. The elder Farseers from the council were far too busy for this, but one of the 'lesser' Farseers that oversaw the Warlock shrine had assisted and been very instructive, even after focusing mostly on rune useage.

He was currently examining the design of 'his' Hellebore frigate, though the term was best used loosely. It was a modified version, closer to a Hemlock destroyer in size but with a light cruiser engine, power plant, weapon batteries, and point defenses. At slightly more than three fourths of a kilometer, it was a ship to be reckoned with. It could outrun almost everything that the Eldar knew of, and what it couldn't outrun, it could easily outmaneuver and outfight. Even after all the training, all the sweat and frustration, however, he still refused to take the captain's chair.

Because the spirit stone set into the captain's gem slot contained the soul a spiritseer, and those types of Warlocks unnerved him. The issue wasn't that he couldn't work with a spiritseer, or that he thought they were an abomination, but there was something about them that set his teeth on edge, and made him strive to keep as many as he could within his field of vision. He could not deny that they were effective, as the crew's ability to perceive the materium had sharply increased after the seer had been set into their wraithbone control column, the only one on the tiny bridge of the vessel. It had not been designed with a living crew in mind, so certain shortcuts could be taken to speed up its creation and deployment, allowing the eight hundred meter vessel to be completed in mere months, rather than the years that would normally be allotted to such a vessel.

The only part of the vessel with life support was the modified Vampire Raider. He would have to be in his armor whenever he entered the larger ship. This didn't bother him, since he had a small private room on the Raider for resting, meditation and planning. Not much more than a small bed, a small table, a chair, and a pair of displays. It meant that, with all the additions and improvements, he could only move a total of fifteen sentients with him. They hadn't been able to compress the Raider's size much, so it was still a fairly large craft.

He finished his final review of his vehicles, and turned his attention to the weapons. Most of them, he was already familiar with and had only needed some time on a weapon range to remember how to use them, with the exception of the fusion gun and flamer. His shuriken pistol was now a twin pistol, it wasn't that different in usage from before, just a bit heavier. The fusion gun and flamer, however, were completely different from his previous experience, and he had spent some of his free time with the weapons at the Dire Avenger shrine to learn more the weapons proper usage and care. Done with his weapon review, he returned each weapon to its storage slot on the Raider, he allowed himself a sigh, enjoying the feeling that maintaining his equipment produced. A combination of eagerness, satisfaction, and a touch of pity for whoever ended up on the other end of his sights.

He returned to the maintenance of his equipment, finishing with his new armor. He was currently only wearing the mesh undersuit and a tabard, less for modesty because such things were not an issue to the enlightened Eldar, and more because the undersuit, without the armor, didn't provide much in the way of color. The black, grey and red tabard added much more to the grey undersuit, but it was one of the few acceptable ways a Warrior of the Path could display some variation in their appearance. Some individuals newer to the Path still had several outfits suitable for the civilians, but many older warriors had neither the time, inclination, nor space for any kind of a wardrobe other than the most essential. He only had four tabards as a matter of fact, one for each Warrior Path he had walked, three undersuits in case one was damaged and he needed to clean the second, a single shirt and leggings acceptable for a civil setting, and his two sets of armor.

He turned to his armors, and took a moment to admire the older armor. Despite the age and simplicity of the armor, it was still a work of art, psychoreactive plates with smooth lines and gentle curves, belying the fact it was effective armor. It was his backup armor now, so he didn't spend much time checking it, the armory singers had already done the repairs. Done with his older armor set, Arlas turned to the one built specifically for this mission, and couldn't quite restrain the feeling of awe that swept through him. It was, without a doubt, a suit that wouldn't have looked out of place on an Autarch, leading a host of Eldar warriors straight into the teeth of an enemy army.

He stroked the helm tenderly, almost lovingly, as he admired the crisp, clean curves of the helmet, retaining the same basic shape of most Eldar helms, but having so much more hidden inside. The fin that normally vaulted above a Ghost Helm had been turned into three smaller ones down the back of helm, reducing the profile while still providing the masking effect. A small bulge on the right side of the helm, containing a large, ruby optic distinct to the rangefinder, giving him increased accuracy with all the weapons, and the vision enhancement goggles some rangers preferred were attached over the main optics. On the lower curve of the helm, just before the jaw line of the helm ended, two sweeping tubes connected to the back; the mandiblasters that made the Striking Scorpions such fiends against unarmored opponents.

The greaves, gauntlets and leg guards were no different from normal armor, other than being made of wraithbone rather than carapace armor, which significantly reduced the weight, giving him nearly unparalleled fine control and dexterity in his armor. He had managed to get a couple pieces of gear for the forearm guards that Ranger's enjoyed. A grappling hook with monofilament wire and launcher, as well as a small display for his off arm. Done with the helm and limb armors, he carefully replaced each on the stand, and turned his attention to the chest piece.

The centerpiece of the entire ensemble, it was as much armor as work of art, and Singer and his crew had outdone themselves, producing a masterpiece. Singer had even stated he would no longer work in the main armory, as he had produced the best piece he could, and staying there would only remind him that everything else he could build would never be equal to it. The chestplate was of wraithbone, but they had managed to inlay rune armor into it, giving him protection beyond nearly any other suit of armor. The large backpack of the Warp Spider jump engine had been streamlined, removing some of the excess plating. The shoulder pauldrons had been inlaid with several runes, further reinforcing the armor, and allowing him to give himself several psy-craft enhancements that would make his mission easier.

After seeing all the equipment he was being granted, he couldn't help but be proud of the Craftworld for being able to manage the crafting of such a set of marvels, especially so quickly. He also couldn't help but feel a thread of fear. This was not the Eldar way, which meant something was wrong, and he needed to do his part to ensure the Craftworld's survival, which meant he needed to get out and do it.

Finished with his last checks, he psychically sent out a thought to the Farseers, that he was ready to leave, and was requesting guidance. * _Does the Council have any further guidance for me?_ *

As he waited for their reply, he started putting on the new armor, keeping only his old cloak. New threads of cameleoline had been woven into the cloak, completely restoring its ability to help him blend into the surrounding area. As he finished carefully putting on the chest plate, the Council replied. * _No, Fleet Master Ylbaer has been informed that you are ready to depart. He will begin clearing the Orks from around the webgate immediately. You are to enter the webgate as quickly as possible, and recon the other side as able. Do not let our technology fall into the possession of whatever is on the other side of the gate, and avoid causing more problems than you must. The Craftworld will follow within a decade._ *

He sent back his understanding and compliance, noting that what they hadn't told him was just as important as what they had. No one had any idea what was on the other side, so he could engage anyone or anything as he saw fit. No word on if there were webgates on the other side, so he would likely be stuck to taking the long route for long distance travel. Of course, he could just stowaway or steal a local ship, if they had faster than light travel. He finished dressing, pausing only enough to glance at the picture of his mother, himself in his Warp Spider armor, and his sister in her Howling Banshee armor, and another of his first squad when he had been with the Warp Spiders, before heading for the cockpit of his Raider. He had already moved everything he needed into it; rations, spare parts, his few personal effects, extra wraithbone seeds for both equipment and armor repairs, so all he needed was to just leave.

He sat down in the only chair, before psychically commanding the seat to turn. He smiled at the spirit stone embedded in the console, before mentally activating the Raider. * _The Farseer Council is letting us go. You ready for this, Yol'Pvera?_ *

All he got back was a feeling of being mildly insulted, which could mean she was feeling insulted, or was insulting him for his insinuation that she was not ready. Either was equally likely, and he had learned she didn't enjoy communicating with words, having preferred being with vehicles to people, having kept that preference even after death. He mentally ordered the vessel to hover off the tiny hangar deck, and waited for the controller of the star space around the Craftworld to tell him he could leave and where his ship was waiting. Once he got it, he put the engines to the directed speed, turned to the designated heading, and took off toward his ship.

He let his thoughts wander a bit, trusting Yol'Pvera to let him know if something happened that he needed to pay attention to. His ship was a quarter hour from the craftworld, finishing up the last of the tests before it was allowed to leave. There was quite a debate amongst the shipbuilders if the vessel was a variation of the Hellebore frigate or the Hemlock destroyer, as it took heavily from both designs, as well as if it should become a permanent ship in their line up. He had, with the spirit crew's permission, named the ship the _Raibh Karun_ , or the Night Scout in a lesser tongue. None of the crew had bothered to even give him their names, content on keeping their distance from him, including the spiritseer. Not that it bothered him, he was used to being an Outcast.

He grinned at his weak word play, before returning his focus to his craft. A quick check showed that nothing had changed in the last five minutes, so he started plotting out their course. He ignored the annoyance emanating from the spirit stone as he did her job for her, or more accurately did the same job she had already completed in a less proficient manner. Another ten minutes to the _Raibh Karun,_ then an hour to the nearest webgate for ships. After that, a day to get through two more normal webways before he arrived at the Abandoned Webgate's system. And then a quarter of a day to get to the actual Webgate he was supposed to scout. So about a day and a third to get to the part where he could do his job. Until then, not much to do but lean back and enjoy the ride.

* * *

He actually arrived at the final system in less than a day, as the ship was significantly faster than he had expected. The journey had been almost depressingly normal and uninteresting and boring. He still made a point of getting into his armor again, and heading up to the bridge as they approached the reversion point back to the materium, out of the webway. He knew the Assault Fleet had been in the system, driving the local orks out.

Six hours later, the _Raibh Karun_ was approaching the gate, which had dismissed its illusions that protected it from detection. The normal shimmering vortex was present in the gate, but what made it vary from the usual webway gates was the fact that this gate's shimmer wasn't the usual whitish silver of starlight, but more a reddish grey of a dying star or fading sunset. It was distinctly unnerving to look at. After a moment, Arlas acknowledged the fear and unease he was feeling, and then dismissed it, before looking at the spirit stone column, with its ten stones and embedded wraithguard, and nodded. * _Take us in. Anti-grav engines to half speed, full power to weapons and sensors. I want to know about blockages in this section before we run into them. Keep to the largest path if the path branches, that is the one the craftworld will follow._ *

The entrance to the Abandoned Gate was… impossibly large, even to his mind, and he had seen images of the largest craftworlds. Those were sometimes mistaken for small planets, or in Ulthwe's case, it had been mistaken by human space marines for a sun. This gate was large enough that only the most massive of the craftworlds couldn't enter. His own craftworld would easily fit. One concern eased, he would just hope that the interior was as spacious as the exterior implied, didn't dead end, or branch into a multitude of smaller tunnels at some point inside. Or was overrun by daemons, or something equally unpleasant.

They slipped through the gate entrance without an issue, despite its unusual color, but instead of the crisp, clean 'tunnel' interior of silverish white starlight he expected, it had jagged rust colored walls, almost the color of dried blood. He looked over the entrance, before shaking his head. * _Looks like there is a massive warp breach somewhere. Warn the craftworld to expect chaos entities to assault them when they are inside. And we need to be ready as well._ *

The spiritseer sent back their agreement, and the vessel continued forward. Despite his fears, they were not attacked, even after an hour of travel. Arlas stayed in the bridge, until a blinking light on his heads up display revealed his air supply was down to an hour. He frowned at the display, before sending his annoyance to the seer. * _Permission to replace my air, and move two of the crew to wraithguard bodies for defense in case we are boarded? I will move Yol'Pvera to one as well._ *

The seer dismissed him with a feeling of agreement, and Arlas took the two gems that had their clamps loosen. A few minutes later, he was in the hangar, placing the gems into the slots on the wraithguards, and stepped aside to let them step out of their housing. He entered the Raider, and sealed the transport, before eagerly popping his helmet seal. Taking in several deep breaths of air that wasn't recycled from his suit, he attached the helm on his hip, and headed for the cockpit. He pulled Yol'Pvera out of her spirit stone slot in the cockpit, and informed her of the current state of the mission, as he moved her to the wraithguard body.

The wraithguard moved through the small airlock separating the cockpit, armory, and his living quarters, from the transport portion of the ship. He spent a moment just enjoying the feeling of being 'alone,' despite the three spirit stones in the hangar of the small frigate. After a moment, he psychically reached out to the seer. * _Do you need me for anything, or may I get some rest?_ *

He wasn't tired yet, but better to get a bit of rest now, rather than be tired later and need to be alert. After a moment of consideration, the seer replied that sensors were currently clear, she was setting their speed to three fourths full to clear the damaged webway area faster, and he could rest if needed. He entered his room, and took a seat in the clear area of the cabin, tiny though it was. He didn't need sleep, only rest, and meditation provided that. He just hoped the rest of the journey was as exciting as the first hour.

* * *

It was just shy of the seventh day in the abandoned webgate, when the mission finally became interesting. The webway had been getting steadily darker, which was not a good sign, but the lack of hostile response had been draining as an attack in its own way. Worse, the walls themselves had been… distorting, for want of a better word. He had helped, during his time in the Striking Scorpion shrine, to clear a section of the webway that had been corrupted, and while the color of rust and dried blood that had been present then was here, the sections of the webway here that were simply… empty was something he was not familiar with.

He had seen normal sections, blocked sections, lost sections, even a destroyed section, but this was something new. It was so distracting and disconcerting that no one, not even the spirit stone crew, noticed the warp energy surge until a daemon materialized on the bridge. It was a typical daemon, if such a label can be applied to such creatures, two legs, three arms, a fang filled mouth slobbering everywhere, six beady black eyes glaring hatefully at the only living crew member, and burning blood as Arlas tore it apart with the twin shuriken pistol. * _Full speed, now! Get us through this section. All hands, prepare to repel daemonic boarders._ *

He wanted to get down to the hanger, but knew that the three wraithguard in there were enough for everything but a major daemon, or a coordinated boarding attempt. He had to cover the bridge while the spiritseer's wraithguard stepped out of its stand. While each stand had a wraithcannon, the traditional armament of a wraithguard, the ship had also issued a second weapon to each wraithguard, meant for use in protecting the airless ship. Most had either a scatter laser or shuriken cannon, but there was one with a star cannon, another with a flame thrower, and Arlas was bemused to see a soul stripping D-scythe in the stand behind the spiritseer's wraithguard.

Her second weapon was a bit more 'normal,' a shuriken cannon, but she also had a witchblade and force shield, something he had only seen on the rare melee focused wraithlords before. As the spiritseer grabbed their blade and cannon, and began shredding the daemons that were boarding the bridge faster than they appeared, he was modestly glad for both the seer's weapons and skill. As he exited the bridge, he psychically heard the spiritseer repeat their earlier orders. * _Agreed Pathfinder. Full speed, send another wraithguard to the bridge. Weapons to full, fire on all targets_ *

Almost immediately, he could feel the three weapon batteries and the point defense clusters begin firing, the ship trembling just barely with every salvo from the batteries. Arriving in the hangar, he quickly saw that the larger space was allowing more daemons to mass. A pair of shuriken cannons and a star cannon were being leveled against them, and while so far none of them had faltered due to the problems of being a soul in a spirit stone, it was only a matter of time. Unless the seer was somehow, in some way, doing something to prevent the problems a wraithguard sometimes suffered from.

Either way, he quickly fired a volley into a forming daemon, sliced another in half with his witchblade, and started issuing orders. * _Form up near the Raider. Back to back so they don't get behind you. Wraithguard nearest the door, head to the bridge to help the seer keep it clear._ *

The Vampire Raider transport was currently resting in its stand, but with a psychic command, it was raised into the air, giving the defenders an unimpeded view and field of fire, preventing the daemons from massing behind something. So instead, the daemons all immediately charged. Shuriken cannon, starcannon, and shuriken pistol cut them down, with Arlas using his blade on any that survived long enough to get close. He had no idea how long the fight lasted, before suddenly the daemons simply stopped appearing, the few ones not already being torn to pieces by either blade or cannon suddenly flaring in warp fire to vanish completely. But instead of being relieved, he felt fear.

 _ **Daemons didn't run.**_

Not unless something FAR worse was coming. And he could still feel the terrible song of the warp in his mind. They were deep in a breached section of the webway, still well within the twisted weave of the Warp. He sent a questioning thought to the seer, whose reply was only more unsettling. * _Bridge clear, still deep in contaminated webway. Something ahead, sensors unclear. Something closer, hard contact, brace._ *

The deck shudder slightly as the weapon batteries fired, but whatever the seer had detected was not destroyed, instead slamming into the side of the ship hard enough to be noticeable. A second later, a massive flare of warp energy erupted to one side of the hangar, soaring until it scorched the ceiling. A moment later, a massive daemon, nearly four meters tall, stepped out of the dying blaze, a hideous, hook ended and serrated blade in one hand, warp energies in the other. Its unspeakable face curled into a smile, revealing ragged, rotting teeth as it surveyed the two wraithguard and Eldar in front of it. * _For millennia, I have guarded this passage in Hir name with nothing to show for it. And now a ship of Hir prizes seeks to flee Hir grasp? Perhaps such a bounty will allow me to move from this wretched location one more fitting of my stature and position in the Warp._ *

Arlas rolled his eyes at the Greater Daemon, knowing it couldn't see him through his helm in the airless hangar. Its angular head with an elongated snout and tiny, almost invisible eyes peered about, as its scaled torso and massive arms flexed idly. For a moment, no one moved, the eldar and wraithguard on one side, aiming at the massive daemon, and the daemon on the other, ready to charge. Then the airlock to the hangar whisked open, revealing a shuriken cannon and D-scythe armed wraithguard pair, who immediately opened fire. The most important blow, the D-scythe shot, apparently missed as the daemon started charging, but at least one shot from the cannon hit.

As the daemon started its charge forward, the other two wraithguards and the Pathfinder fired, though the Pathfinder couldn't help but see the wound from the shuriken cannon closing. At least two of the shots hit, but either the wounds closed immediately from exposure to the raw Warp energies, or its scale or armor, piecemeal though it was, caught and deflected the attacks. It struck once, shearing Yol'Pvera's wraithguard from shoulder to hip, and though her star cannon was still intact, it wouldn't be participating in this battle any more. A second strike, and the second wraithguard that had been in the hangar fell, with a cut through its waist.

Arlas lunged, his witchblade biting deep into the daemon's thigh, but it simply sneered down at him, before dancing out of range, and then charging the wraithguards in the airlock. This time, Arlas heard the shuriken cannon discharge, but the daemon didn't fall, meaning either the D-scythe had missed again, or the daemon was immune to effect of the weapon in the warp fields.

The daemon chopped twice, but a snarl of anger revealed it had missed one of the targets, even as the deck rebounded from a collapsing wraithguard. Arlas charged and slammed his blade into the lower back of the daemon, hoping to sever the spine, but the wound healed even as he dragged the blade through its spine, and by the time his blade had been yanked free, the wound was nearly closed. He desperately jumped back to avoid a slash of that hideous blade, only to feel the deck reverberate again. It was now just him and the daemon. It sneered down at him. * _Little Eldar, swear your allegiance to Lord Slaanesh, and I might spare your pitiable existence._ *

The helmet made it impossible to tell the expression Arlas had, but he figured it was smart enough to get a hint from his words. * _Better idea, I kill you, and then complete my mission with your skull mounted to my transport._ *

The daemon actually threw its head back and laughed. * _Hehehehehe. Oh, thats…. Hahahahah. That is…. Oh my… That was the…. Hehehehehe. I can't look at you without laughing. Hehehe. Thank you, eldar warrior, I needed that. I am Halrshan-Ishnetrue. Tell me, are you ready to become a toy for my mistress? Hehe_ *

The threat was mildly defused by the fact the daemon was actually giggling, and not looking directly at the Pathfinder, which the eldar found vaguely insulting. However, before either could reply further, or move, both heard the spirit stone crew in the bridge. * _Approaching sensor anomaly. Brace for sudden maneuvers._ *

The daemon's face paled, something that intrigued Arlas in spite of himself. He wasn't aware scales showed a change in blood flow. * _Sensor… By the Powers, no. You aren't… You are. You fools are. You fools actually are! No. NO. NO! NO ONE IS TO PASS. The Mistress so decreed, and so it MUST BE! DIE!_ *

The daemon was suddenly in front of Arlas, its blade descending. He frantically activated his jump pack, flashing to the other side of the daemon, only to quickly flash away again as its backswing nearly caught him in the side. The daemon was desperate in its assault, and swung its blade in powerful but unwieldy arcs, but it was out of time. Even as it closed the distance again, the crew broadcast their observations again. * _Entering sensor anomaly in three… two… one…_ *

* _NOOOOOOOOOOO-_ *

The daemon vanished as the countdown ended, and while Arlas wanted to relax, the vessel suddenly started violently pitching, and his head began pounding. Realizing the pain was from psychic strain, he frantically tried to perform the mental exercises to disperse the pain, when it suddenly doubled, and then redoubled. He collapsed onto the hangar deck, in utter agony as he vaguely heard a warning from the spirit crew. * _Brace for... evaaaaaasivve… mannnnnnnnuuuuuuueverrrrrrrrrrrs._ *

Arlas watched the deck suddenly tilt and whirl unexpected, before he slammed into a wall, and had just enough time to realize that one of the wraithguard's weapons seemed to be flying right at him, before it hit the wall behind his head, and then it crashed down, slamming his helmet into the deck, and all he knew was agony and darkness.


	4. The First Arrival

**Chapter 4 - The First Arrival**

 _A/N - Screech garble hack! Sorry, I don't speak Tyranid. :P_

 _ **Edit (26 Oct 2017):**_ _fixed a number of typos, grammar and formatting errors. Also corrected a lore conflict with later chapters,_

Eden Prime, Primary Alliance Base, Sensor Station, Earth date February 12, 2183, local time 39:41

Another day, another boring monitoring duty, thought Specialist Hernandez, wishing his shift was over. Seven and a half hours into his shift, and not a god-be-damned thing had happened. Which was to be expected, they were on the pride and joy of the System Alliance, Eden Prime, deep in the heart of Alliance space. He realized that they were directly connected to Batarian space thanks to the local relays, but even the batarians weren't crazy enough to openly assault a Systems Alliance planet, not after the Skyllian Blitz, Torfan and the Shepard twin's actions there.

He took a nice long stretch, and allowed himself to relax, only keeping a tiny bit of his attention on the sensor screen. He was supposed to watching a quadrant of the local system, but no one was crazy enough to come here and start something.

So, he was as surprised as the rest of the sensor crew when his station suddenly started blaring at him. Quickly picking himself off the floor fast enough that no one else saw, he glared at the screen, and spotted a contact on it. In spite of his training, it still took him almost a second to realize it was not one of his fellow marines screwing with him, and he frantically began working the computer. Trying to get a read on whatever it was the sensors had picked up, and sending automated messages to the contact to get it to respond to local system control. "Staff Commander Francis, reporting unknown sensor contact, sector four, vector two niner seven, bearing zero four eight, don't have enough for heading yet, speed… zero seven two point one percent of light speed. Contact is not matching any profiles on record, nor responding to hails. Not on any accepted trade routes or relay vectors."

* * *

Arlas woke up to an extremely annoying beeping noise and a pounding headache. He reached out to swat at whatever it was, before his hand slapped the heavy star cannon, lying almost on top of him. The impact and pain quickly woke him up, and he remembered what had happened. Realizing that the beeping was the suit alarm for being almost out of breathable air, he quickly activated his warp pack, and jumped into the Raider, before yanking his helm off. The alarm quickly faded as the suit began pulling air into the internal air pack, but he quickly pulled the small air pack off his armor and replaced it with the backup.

The eldar pathfinder reached out to the bridge psychically, even as he did the mental exercise to deaden pain. * _Status report._ *

One of the crew spirits answered, and began a litany of damage. * _Main engines, offline. Secondary propulsion, erratic and fluctuating. Lower starboard and port solar sails, lost. Main weapon system, offline, significant damage, inoperable. Weapon batteries one through three, damaged, online. Point defenses, sporadic, online. Communications, offline. Main power, offline. Backup power, offline. Emergency power, sporadic, online. Sensors, damaged, sporadic, online. Outer hull armor sections two, three, nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen, lost._ *

Arlas suddenly staggered as the ship suddenly shuddered. * _Alert, top side solar sail, lost. We are currently drifting. Alert, stellar object detected, on vector zero zero zero. Unable to divert. Contact with atmosphere in… three point five minutes. Orders, acting captain?_ *

* * *

As Commander Francis came over, Specialist Hernandez suddenly swore. "Second sensor ghost, same vector, bearing, heading is... variable. Speed is… zero seven one point nine five. Sir, ghost may be breaking up."

* * *

Arlas staggered as the ship shuddered yet again. * _Alert, hull section twelve, lost._ *

He slammed the extra air pack into his mesh armor, and slotted the old one into the holder to ensure it was secure. He then reattached his helm, and warp jumped back into the hangar to collect weapons and spirit stones, as the ship shuddered again. * _Alert, hull section fourteen, lost. Alert, all lower external hull armor, lost._ *

He staggered again, and then dodged a flying shuriken cannon as gravity failed. * _Alert, engine pulse detected, ship now tumbling. Local anti-gravity controls, sporadic and failing. Advising immediate evacuation of all crew._ *

* * *

Today was no longer a good day for Specialist Hernandez; he could only guess at how many reports and forms he was going to have to fill out after this, especially as the Officer on Duty leaned over his shoulder to watch his screen. "Sir, two more contacts, same vector and bearing, heading is… indeterminate, speed… zero seven one point seven one. Sensor contact is definitely breaking apart, all objects are on collision course with planet Nirvana."

Staff Commander Francis swore under his breath. "Hawkins! Scramble the alert fighter squadron, and get the rest of the pilots into their birds. We got something in system, and I will be damned if it sucker punches us. And wake the damned infantry officers! I want the ground grunts ready if this is just a diversion."

Hernandez wondered why the commander was so worried, but figured it was whatever had the officers and most of the sergeants worried. Something well above his paygrade, no doubt.

* * *

Another shudder, and Arlas would have wept for his little frigate if he had the time. He had gathered the spirit stones from the destroyed wraithguards, and slotted the star cannon back into its stand on the Raider, before returning with Ylo'Pvera's stone to commandeer a wraithguard from the ship's complement. One of the stones had been shattered, the spirit lost to Slaanesh and the Warp, but he returned the seer to the column, and had slotted Yol'Pvera's stone in one of the remaining six wraithguards. He then staggered over to the column, and looked at the seer's stone, the vibrations getting worse. * _Do you want me to take any more with me?_ *

It took only a second for the seer to reply, but in psychic speak it took an agonizingly long time for them to reply. * _... No, I need the ones I have left. Get back to your ship, blow the hangar doors, and get out of here. We will ensure the ship is not captured. Go, Pathfinder. For the Craftworld._ *

Another shudder, even more violent than the previous ones coursed through the _Raibh Karun_ , and he took a second to mourn his brave little ship's impending death, even as he dashed from the bridge.

* * *

Specialist Hernandez finished tapping away at his holo-board, and turned his head. "Sir, long range sensors have returned enough to give us an idea of what it looked like when it got in system, bringing it up on main now."

He tapped a few keys, and then brought up the same information in a subscreen of his own computer. The computer showed… something unique, different from anything he had seen before, from any race. The craft looked like a cone with small bulges arranged evenly along the hull, attached to several engines on its back, but most striking was a large sail protruding from the top, and a barrel of some kind sticking out the front, but clearly broken as one side had a single brace, but the opposite had three. More concerning was the fact the ship had two more broken spars on each lower side, and a couple sections of hull were clearly missing, even before it had started falling apart in system. Oh, and it was at least seven hundred meters long.

The various points did not go unnoticed by his fellow sensor station technicians. "Mary, mother of god, that thing was at LEAST seven hundred meters. And that was after the main gun got broke."

Another tech was muttering softly to the technician next to him. "More concerned about what did that damage. I doubt that whatever built it designed it with those holes, and lightspeed generally doesn't tear out sections of hull loose without also shredding a ship. Which means someone or _thing_ was kicking the shit out of that ship when it went to FTL to escape."

Then someone else noticed something even more concerning. "If it even went to FTL. Sensor reads are reporting NO eezo. I say again, no eezo detected on board that ship."

The entire room went quiet, as they all turned to stare at the sensor tech that had dropped that little revelation. Staff Commander Francis was the first to get his voice back. "Alright everyone, triple check everything and make damned sure ground side gets a copy. Willykins, Alert Alliance Command we may have a first contact scenario. Even if it crashes, there might be survivors. We ain't the turians people, we let them fuck up first contacts. We humans do it right. But we need backup and diplomats at least.

And if nothing else, we can have some more security around here."

Hernandez was fairly certain he was the only one to hear the commander, but didn't say anything. He had no desire to scrub the toilets on this tin can of a sensor station. Again. A moment later, he spoke up. "Sir, all previous contacts just hit the atmo of Nirvana, but a new one just registered and is slingshotting on a path away from planet Nirvana."

Staff Commander Francis turned back to him, and the specialist merely nodded to the question in his eyes. "Yes sir. On course for Eden Prime. Wait… Sir, sensor contact lost, say again, sensor contact lost with object on Eden Prime intercept course."

* * *

Arlas finished aligning his Raider with the only inhabitable planet in the system, and then touched Yol'Pvera's stone. * _Do a sensor check for everything you can, and activate the holo-field. No sense advertising our presence. Hate to alert the locals or cause them any undue duress and distress. How long until we arrive?_ *

His co-pilot sent back a neutral feeling before she replied. * _With the speed boost from the slingshot around the planet and the ship? Less than five hours._ *

* * *

The captain in charge of the Systems Alliance marines in unit 212 was making his second sweep through the barracks, roaring at the slow marines. "Move it Pelowski, this ain't a drill. Harkon, get your ass in gear. Where the hell is Chief Williams?"

A voice behind him cause him to turn, spotting a woman in white and pink armor at attention near the door. "Here sir. Fourth platoon is outside with the LT and ready for orders."

The captain grunted, dismissing her, and turned to harry the last of the stragglers outside. "Jerry, move it. Lebows, why are you always the last one out? I swear, if raiders ever hit this barracks, and we lose any marines in it, I am gonna place good money on one of them being you. NOW MOVE YOUR ASS!"

Once outside, he looked over the two hundred and some odd marines from his barracks, and nodded. "Damn right everyone is ready. Alright, listen the fuck up!"

He waited a moment for the last of the marines to quit making noises and jerking around, before nodding and beginning the brief. "An hour ago, sensor station four caught wind of something dropping into system. While most of it crashed onto Nirvana, it launched something in our direction. Our orders are to disperse into the town and surrounding area, and ensure if it is a raider, pirate, or slaver, they rue the day they decided to fuck with the Systems Alliance Marine Corps. Am I right, or am I right, marines?"

The response from two hundred men and women was like a small bomb going off, and the captain enjoyed every decibel of it. "HOORAH!"

The captain grinned, nodded, and pulled out a cigar, which he stuck into his mouth without bothering to light. "Damn right I am! Split your platoons into squads, and stand by for orders and patrol routes. The other three companies will be out there as well, so play nice. That means there are more than nine hundred of the toughest, meanest bitches and sons of bitches to ever grace the human race are out there, so check your damn targets. Jerry, that includes you!

First platoon, you get our side the town. Second platoon, you get the spaceport and will be sharing it with a platoon from the other three units. Third platoon, that dig site is a priority protection detail, deploy there with heavy weapons, I want it to stay secure even hell itself shows up. Fourth platoon, you will be moving between all three areas on patrol. Makos will be deploying as soon as the armor corp wakes up, finishes their coffee, breakfast and massages, and deign to join us, but I expect us to out perform them, like we always do. Now move it marines, this colony may want to protect itself, but I will be damned if we don't show 'em how it is done."

* * *

In a communication room, several relays distant, a man with an admiral's insignia was talking to a hologram of a starship captain. "Anderson, I am pushing your deployment orders up half a day. You need to depart for Eden Prime. Now."

The hologram nodded, before frowning and typing away quickly on his omnitool. "Alright, I just sent the emergency recall orders. But Admiral Hackett, what is going on? Did the batarians get wind of our… find?"

Admiral Hackett shook his head. "No, but I have already dispatched a patrol group to assist in securing the system, they will be arriving in about three and a half hours. One of the sensor stations in the Utopia cluster picked up an unknown contact, which broke apart and crashed on Nirvana. While it simply appeared in system with none of the usual FTL signatures, we did get a good reading of it in the twenty minutes before it crashed."

He sent an image of the ship to the captain, who looked at the image with concern. "That isn't a Council ship. Have we alerted the Council? And what does this do to my orders?"

Admiral Hackett shook his head, but didn't show any emotion in his voice but stoic competence. "The Parliament, in their infinite 'wisdom,' wishes to… ascertain the situation before notifying the Council. As they rationalized it, the vessel doesn't use eezo, therefore we are not required to inform the Council of it."

Anderson scowled, something he did well, before shaking his head. "That is foolish. We have a Council Spectre on board, going to Eden Prime already, to observe OUR Spectre candidates. Everyone is going to be talking about it, he can't possibly miss it. And that is assuming the STG don't already know about it."

Hackett shook his head again. "Which only makes the next order that much more baffling. If we do find a new species, and since you are heading to the Citadel already-"

Anderson was staring at him, though his eyes were begging for Admiral Hackett to not give the order that he knew was coming. Hackett kept talking anyway, though his expression shifted to one of sympathy. "You are to take them there to meet the Council. Assuming you can communicate with them and they are peaceful. If you are unable to communicate, but they remain peaceful, then you can decide on whether to bring them with you, or if they can wait for the Council to send in their own diplomat. If not peaceful, disengage as well as you can, they won't push far from a crashed ship, but keep your people alive, and then minimize the unknown's casualties."

Anderson's mouth worked for a moment, before he simply shook his head once at the absurdity of the situation, and then nodded and gave the only reply he could. "Yes sir. We will depart as soon as the last necessary crew member arrives. We will be there within three hours."

* * *

In an uninhabited system on the edge of the Systems Alliance space, a small fleet loitered. Most of them were three to four hundred meters long, insectile shaped, and oozed maliciousness just by existing. However, compared to the flagship of the fleet, a massive, two kilometer long cuttlefish shaped colossus, they were as cute, cuddly, and harmless as a puppy. The flagship was pitch black, flickers of red energy lancing up the sides of the vessel.

Deep inside the largest ship, a pair of figures were watching a display, a news report on Eden Prime and learning that something had riled up the Systems Alliance presence on the planet. All the local marines were deploying, reservists were being activated, militia armed, additional ships called in, and civilians were encouraged to ensure they had supplies and shelter nearby, in case the military called for all personnel to immediately begin sheltering. Noticeably, no one was saying WHY all these steps were being taken, which was only increasing the colony's unrest.

The larger of the two growled, their cybernetic left arm clenching and unclenching unconsciously, while the smaller, black clad female beside him simply observed impassionately. After a moment, the second figure's head turned slightly. "What are you orders, Saren? The geth have their attack plans and orders. If we delay now, the beacon may be lost to us."

The first figure turned enough to glare at the second, who simply met his hateful gaze with an impartial, neutral one. "Order all ships forward. We are attacking now."

The room didn't move, but after a moment, the first figure spoke. "Two hours and counting. Then we begin to bring the humans to their knees."

* * *

At the staging area for the SSV Normandy SR-1, Captain Anderson waited with barely disguised impatience. He wanted to leave immediately, if not sooner, but leaving without the Spectre candidates would defeat the entire point of going. And the twins were running late, pulled over by an overzealous patrol officer that didn't know what the Alliance emergency response signal meant and allowed. Thankfully, the Systems Alliance Intelligence Agency had already taken over nailing that poor sod to the wall, so he wouldn't have to, as honorary uncle of those two. He had been a friend of their father before he got killed on Mindoir, and still remained a friend to their mother.

He glanced to one side, and spotted the last nonessential replacement crewman dashing up a secondary passage. "Welcome aboard, Corporal Jenkins. Get onboard, stow your stuff, and report to Lt Alenko."

He watched the young marine snap off a salute, which Anderson quick dismissed, and rolled his eyes as Corporal Jenkins ran on board. It was difficult, waiting, when he and ship should be moving, but without the Shepard twins, leaving would be useless at best, counterproductive at worst. The captain was mildly thankful for his training, otherwise he likely would have been pacing in frustration and nervous energy. A veteran officer could never show when they were nervous, morale would tank if they did.

He did allow himself to roll his eyes as his omni-tool gave a specific vibration, forcing himself to relax, and speak with a respectful tone. "Spectre Nihlus, what do you need?"

There was no sound for a moment, but eventually someone sighed from behind, a strange, flanged voice that sounded like two people speaking at once. "One day, I will figure out how you manage to hear me coming every time. If I didn't know better, I would say you didn't appreciate being startled."

Captain Anderson kept his amusement well contained. He would be damned if he admitted that he had programmed his tool to alert him whenever the Spectre, the only turian on board, got within five meters of him. The turian seemed to take far too much pleasure in quietly stalking about the ship, scaring the daylights out of most of the crew when they turned around and a black and red armored turian was just standing there, looming above them. He had managed to do it to Captain Anderson once, though he had not reacted to the turian, before he had taken steps. Instead of responding to the implied accusation, he simply repeated his previous question. "Spectre Nihlus, what do you need?"

After a moment, the turian Spectre stepped up alongside the captain. "Information. What is going on captain?"

Anderson paused for a moment, waiting to see if the Shepard twins would show up and save him from having to 'exaggerate and imply' to an ally that would be sharing his ship for months, but fate was not that kind. So he simply gave the official answer. "Sensors picked up a contact en route to Eden Prime at the edge of the system, but we quickly lost contact. Since we don't know what it was, and considering what is on the planet…"

Nihlus nodded. "Good enough. Ah, I think the twins have arrived."

Anderson turned, and relaxed at the two red headed women running toward him. "Glad you made it, commander Shepard, commander Shepard. Gear up once on board. We leave immediately."

Both women stopped long enough to salute, and then kept going at a fast walk, realizing the urgency of the situation, but it gave him a moment to inspect both of them as he returned the salute. The two women could almost be mistaken for each a mirror of the other, as both had the same strikingly bright red hair, emerald eyes, even the same body build. In fact, the only reasonably certain way to tell each of them apart was that the vanguard Shepard had slightly more noticeable muscles, and the adept Shepard was distinctly more… curvaceous. As they moved past him, each carrying their personal effects in a duffel bag, it made him glad the two tended to share quarters. He could only imagine the incidents that might happen if someone made a comment to the two N7s.

Anderson and Nihlus entered the decontamination chamber just behind the two women. While the decontamination process was underway, he contacted the pilot, Joker. "Joker, get us moving, I want us there yesterday. Red line the engines, give the engineers something to do."

The pilot on the other end, usually driving him to the end of his tether, was actually going to do a lot to restore some of his patience today. "With pleasure sir. Already disconnecting from the docks, want me to push now, or wait until open space so we don't get bleated at by Space Control?"

Normally, Joker's irreverent questions got on his nerves, but this was actually a good one. A flick of his wrist, a quick type, and then he hit enter, and the Normandy's transponder picked up three extra letters, indicating it was on a priority Systems Alliance mission. And therefore exempt from the usual laws and regulations regarding ship speeds, listening Traffic Control, and such similar mundane concerns. "Punch it Joker."

The decontamination protocol finished, and the inner airlock opened, letting the four in. "Shepards, get your stuff settled in the XO office, then gear up. We will be arriving at Eden Prime to finish the shakedown cruise. Might not be as simple or quiet as we planned, but shouldn't be anything to worry about."

He turned, but Nihlus had already stepped past the twins, both the captain and turian missing the twin's slightly confused looks, and was striding down the vessel, inspecting each station as he silently stalked past. Anderson dismissed the Turian from his mind, and turned to the twins. "Meet me in the comm room for your briefing after we make the relay jump."

* * *

Gunnery Chief Williams Williams looked around at the forests. Her squad, Dog squad of the fourth platoon of the 212th, was out on long patrol yet again, and she had put herself in the rear guard position. Master Sergeant Donkey was in the middle, with Private Bates on point, Private Penny behind him, and Corporal Jenner and Private Rasputin were behind the sergeant. Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie squads were out on patrol between the three points the barracks had been assigned, with Gold squad back protecting the three Makos assigned to their sector, and Echo, Foxtrot, and Hotel squads were protecting the unit's armory and ready to redeploy if needed.

They had been on patrol for nearly two hours at this point, when she heard something. At first she thought it was just the wind, but then realized the noise also included a soft hum under the whistling of the wind. She turned toward the noise, but all she saw was trees. "Anyone else hear that? That humming?"

The rest of the squad paused, before Rasputin nodded. "Yeah, just under the whistle of the wind in the-"

Corporal Jenner cut him off. "What wind?"

Everyone suddenly had their rifles up as they realized that there was no wind, despite the noise. Chief Williams had the presence of mind to activate her omni-tool's recording device, before every head and weapon swung up and backwards to the direction they had come from. The noise reached a crescendo, and a massive shape swooped by above the squad, shimmering like a heat mirage, the speed and shimmer making it difficult to tell anything about the shape other than it had to be at least as long as it was wide.

Everyone opened fire with their assault rifles, but it was unclear, due to the object's speed and shimmer, if anyone hit. Sergeant Donkey started snapping out directions. "Williams, I saw that omni-tool. Tell me you were recording that."

"Sir, yes sir."

"Well done, chief. Get on the horn, inform the captain of the contact. Everyone, move up. I want to know where that damned raider landed. Last thing we need is it setting up a forward base inside our perimeter."

* * *

Arlas glanced at the readouts, and cursed under his breath. The holo-field had been damaged in either the fight with the daemons or during the transition from webspace to realspace, and had not been functioning properly since they had hit atmosphere. Sometimes the vessel was completely concealed, other times only parts, and sometimes it just turned off. The infantry below him had plinked the paint job when he had flown over them, but nothing serious or heavy enough to actually damaged the vessel was fired, though he had been seen. He shook his head, and located a nice, large clearing, before setting the raider down. He stood up, and looked at Yol'Pvera's stone. * _See if you can repair that damned holo-field. Last thing we need is our ride getting shot up._ *

His companion sent back an affirmative, and an image of the wraithguard with a questioning feeling. He considered it, before sending back. * _No, I would rather have the vessel mobile instead of fully operational. You have no way of getting back into the Raider if I move you._ *

Yol'Pvera sent back a feeling of agreement, before beginning to do what she could to repair his transport, and sole remaining method of moving about. The eldar pathfinder sighed, before heading to the armory. First and foremost, he had to decide his weapons. After arriving in the armory and taking a moment to consider things like weight, mobility, and encumbrance, he realized he could reasonably only take four weapons with him. That meant he could take his long rifle, his twin pistol, the witchblade, and one other weapon with him, in addition to the dozen grenades he carried. After a moment of considering, he selected the fusion gun, in case he ran into something… significant. Besides, the ability to vaporize a squad of charging infantry, melt through tank armor, or open a door was always useful. Maybe once he had more time with the armor and weapons, he could try carrying a fifth one, but that was a while off yet.

Done selecting his weapons, he grabbed his cameleoline cloak, and pulled it on, before yanking the hood up. He then attached his weapons to their holsters, and smiled as the weapons mimicked the active camouflage capabilities of his cloak, which meant that he was practically invisible unless someone spotted his outline. He then took a moment to perform the guidance psychic ceremony for himself. Fully trained Warlocks and Farseers needed a thought and a gesture, but it took him nearly a minute, and would only last a couple hours, as opposed to until he dismissed it, like most other psychic energy manipulators. Finished with his preparations, he then pulled the long rifle out, checked the scope on it, then the dark reaper rangefinder addon for his helm, and headed through the airlock. A moment later, he was in the transport bay, and jumped down, landing on yet another world infested with non-eldar, or mon-keigh in his people's language.

Arlas watched the Raider lift from the ground, stopping at about ten meters in the air, and then vanished as the holofield kicked in and fully activated. A quick nod to himself, and he quickly vacated the area, quickly climbing the nearest tree, and using the higher ground provided to avoid leaving tracks as he moved toward the settlement the ship's sensors had detected on the way down. Seemed like a good spot to check out the local lifeforms.


	5. So It Begins

**Chapter 5 - So It Begins**

 **A/N -** _In response to several PMs and a review pointing out that Eldar are capable of holding a long conversation without words, I have decided to start adding markers to differentiate the various ways of communicating. Words in a language that the PoV character can't understand will either not be translated, or use the below notation._

" _speech" | *mental speech/thoughts* | {_ _untranslated speech_ _} | (nonverbal communications)_

 _Secondly, made some slight modifications to the larger geth platforms, to make them more distinctive than just 'one is red, one is white, and one is dark brown/grey/black/whatever.' Destroyers (dark brown/grey/black) are three meters and excel at close to medium ranges, Juggernauts (red) are three and a third meters tall and only excel at close ranges, and Primes (white) are a flat four meters and are lethal at any range._

 _Thirdly, (wow, longest A/N I have done yet, another record for this story), rather than pick one background and defining military career moment for the Shepards, I crammed as many as I reasonably could in._

 _Fourthly, while the story may have different viewpoints crop up, this is mostly a story about a single Eldar dropping into the ME verse. So most of the focus is going to be on him and his reactions to the… antics going on, and how he grows and changes as a superior sentient sapient. And FINALLY..._

' _ **FOR CHAOS!' -**_ _Third most common chaos battle cry. Or most, depends really._

 _ **Edit (26 Oct 2017):**_ _fixed some grammar mistakes and typos._

Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard headed towards the communications rooms, with her twin, lieutenant commander Jaclyn Shepard, right behind her. Joker had just jumped the ship through the relay, and as ordered, the twins were meeting the captain, hopefully to figure out what was really going on. Both were in their N7 gear, Joannis in her light armored version and carrying a heavy pistol and submachine gun, while Jaclyn was in the medium version, carrying both types of handguns as well as a shotgun.

Even if neither had a gun in their hands, however, both were biotics, and were arguably the most powerful human biotics ever recorded. Joannis could lift more with her mind than most asari matriarchs, and that was when she put in a basic, bottom of the line amp. Jaclyn could discharge novas so strong she had destroyed Mako tanks with a single, focused discharge. Both had shown their impossible biotic stamina at Elysium, during the Skyllian Blitz, when both had been on shore leave. Together, the twins had held back the invading slavers for hours, with some assistance from other off duty personnel, the local militia, and a small mercenary group that had been laying over between jobs.

Command had split the two up after Elysium, despite their protests and the known issues of separating the twins. The twins had participated in multiple different offensives against known pirates and slaver outposts, in preparation for the attack at Torfan. A couple of months before the offense began, Joannis had been temporarily assigned to a platoon of marines, investigating a distress call from Akuze. She had been assigned to provide N7 experience, and biotic support, but when the group found the empty settlement, and nothing else, they had relaxed and scattered to try and determine what had happened. Then the thresher maw attacked.

Despite her best attempts, Joannis was unable to save any of the marines, as the massive creature had shattered their morale and command structure, and every marine had panicked and bolted. She had limped back to the shuttles after single handedly driving it off with her biotics, and signalled for evac, before passing out from the thresher maw's acidic attacks. It took two weeks before she woke back up, and another month before she was fit for duty again. Her service had earned her the title of 'The Immortal Lioness of Elysium,' a title Joannis privately detested, though she never showed her disdain for the title in public.

Jaclyn had been informed of her twin's condition the day before the assault on Torfan, despite having known for weeks that something was wrong. Her temper had been frayed to the limit, and her commanding officer, Major Kyle, had shattered the remaining frayed strands. She had protested to her superiors for a week that Kyle hadn't been capable of leading the attack, and when he had snapped and ordered an all out assault on the facility, her temper erupted. Major Kyle's order had gotten most of the marine assault force killed, and she went on a one woman rampage through the base, butchering every last slaver, pirate, and mercenary in the base, even those trying to surrender.

Unfortunately the Major had suffered a nervous breakdown, and no one who survived had known exactly when he had snapped or who had issued the order to charge. Combined with her rampage, the investigation had eventually determined, or rather guessed, that she had issued the order to charge, taking the word of the babbling Major Kyle over hers. Out of the hundred marines to make that damn charge, only sixteen had survived the charge, let alone the base assault; the Major being one, her another, and the rest were too injured to question about what the flying hell had happened. Two had died getting medical treatment, another had lost his ability to talk, and another suffered significant, permanent amnesia of the event. The remaining survivors had been in the base, and hadn't heard the order directly, requiring it to be relayed to them.

She had raged about it to her superiors, but in the end, there had been no blowback, reprimands, or black marks for the event on her record, and Major Kyle had been medically discharged for his mental breakdown. Other than earning the title 'The Butchering Lynx of Torfan,' she had had little to officially complain about. She did complain to her sister and mother, after being released from questioning and put on mandatory leave to visit her injured twin, that she was, now and forever, 'that bitch that got her entire company wiped out.' At least command now knew that splitting the twins up was a Bad Idea, rather than just a bad idea.

They passed the crew, they nodded to navigator Pressly, paused to try and calm Corporal Jenkins down, though what a marine almost fresh out of basic was doing here, neither twin knew. The twins stepped into the communication room, and frowned at the same time. Only the turian was there, though his back was to them, examining a vista on the view screen. Nihlus might be a Spectre but neither twin really trusted him. They had no reason to distrust him either, though they did share a glance before stepping forward.

While others would only see the two glancing at each other, to the twins it was practically a strategy session and formal meeting. They could tell their twin more with the glare and a twitch than they could someone else in a three minute conversation. So if something had happened to the captain, the turian would be flying, flattened, pounded, flayed, flared, and warped before he could reach for his shotgun. The biggest problem for them would be keeping the communications and briefing room intact during it.

Nihlus turned as they approached, and spread his mandibles slightly before nodding to each twin. "Shepard, Shepard, I was hoping you two would arrive early. Give us a chance to… talk."

Joannis was in front, and sent a flare of dark energy down her back for her twin before nodding. "Fair enough, the captain said he would be here though."

Jaclyn stayed silent, and simply watched, silently reinforcing her twin. The turian titled his head slightly. "He stepped out for a moment. Tell me, commanders, what do you know about Eden Prime?"

Joannis frowned. "A paradise, or so we have been told. Corporal Jenkins is from there."

Jaclyn was not so sanguine about the questioning. "Is there a point to this?"

A mandible twitched, before Nihlus nodded. "Yes, I want to know, are your people ready? For whatever this leads to and wherever it goes? Are your people truly ready for the galactic stage?"

Jaclyn glared at him, and Joannis' aura flared slightly, running down her spine again. "Is there something you are trying to say or imply, Spectre?"

The door slid open, and Captain Anderson strode in. Both women turned towards him, as he began speaking."I think it is time that we tell the commanders what is actually going on."

Nihlus starts to respond, but Jaclyn cut them off. "I know Eden Prime is famous for its farms, and prothean ruins. And since a 'mere' Spectre, especially one of the most successful and decorated, doesn't tag along for shake down runs or to visit farms-"

Joannis finished her twin's sentence. "-it was fairly obvious that we are making a covert pick up on Eden Prime. Stealth systems, handpicked elite crew on the roster, everything fits."

Jaclyn picked up the thread again. "Except for the hasty and early departure. So something else is going on, something as big if not bigger than a prothean beacon. Like a raid."

"Which means someone possibly got wind of whatever prothean tech that was found, supposing it is mobile, and are coming to grab it."

The twins looked at the two males, a slight smirk on their faces as they watch the men try to keep up with their rapid fire deductions and regular speaker swaps. Captain Anderson started chuckling after a moment, having seen the two in deductive mode before, but Nihlus just closed his mouth with a snap, before shaking his head. "Spirits, I have heard of human twins doing things like that, but actually seeing it…"

He shrugged slightly, as Anderson took control of the conversation again. "Mostly correct. We are on our way to pick up an actual **functional** prothean beacon. However, the local sensor stations picked up something entering the system. While most of it crashed onto Nirvana, it did deploy something toward Eden Prime. The station soon lost contact with it. We know nothing about the contact, or the one enroute to Eden Prime. Once-"

The pilot Joker cut into the conversation. "Sorry sir, but priority distress call from the planet. You need to see this."

The monitor behind the captain flashed and then showed whatever had excited the pilot. A figure in black armor stood front and center, his M7 Lancer discharging a near constant stream of fire and death. "Corporal Morkit, have that Mako pull back to that corner, it needs to be at least partially hull down. Sergeant Jenny, take your squad to the corner of 4th and Port streets, staff sergeant Gregory hasn't reported in, and was being hit hard. Private Kelo, is that distress channel up?"

"Yes sir."

The figure stepped around the corner he had been using for cover, letting another marine in slate grey Onyx armor take over at suppressing around the corner. "This is Captain Morgan of the 212th marine garrison on Eden Prime. I am declaring a state of emergency, and requesting immediate assistance from any friendlies hearing this. We been pressed hard, and am down at least a quarter my men-"

He is cut off as the marine that had been at the corner was blasted back with a death cry, causing the captain to glance over his shoulder to see what happened reflexively. The camera panned up, giving a visual of a massive black structure towering over the area, red flickers of energy pulsing up and down the structure before returning to the captain as he resume speaking. "Private Mary, on the corner, remember to duck. These fuckers are accurate! Say, again, being pressed hard. We have a priority package on site, but have lost control, say again, priority package **not secure**. Enemy is everywhere, dropping fire and troops right on top of our positions, secondary perimeter is barely holding-"

A mako, across the street that the marines were contesting suddenly exploded in fire, engulfing several marines that had been using it for cover, and something gleamed through the smoke, before a sudden flash of white from beyond the destroyed Mako caused the feed to cut to static. "Sorry sir, video cuts to static after that, nothing else on any of the comms. Anywhere in the system."

Anderson swore, and glared at the screen. "Take us in Joker. Fast and quiet. Any other ships in the area? Computer, rewind to marine death cry, play at one tenth speed, muted."

Joker took a moment to check his sensors, as the computer slowly played the video. It was slightly surreal, watching a man fall back, chest armor blown out by what looked like a dispersing carnage round, before the camera started panning up. "Twelve minutes out Captain, no other ships in the system. The patrol fleet the Admiral promised is still an hour and a half out, one of them reported issues with their engines."

The massive black structure came into view, the red streaks looking like lightning in the slowed playback. Anderson nodded to himself. "Pause video."

Everyone stared at the image, and all of them stayed motionless, only their eyes moving as they observed the… structure. Eden Prime had nothing like that, but it was far too large to be a ship. A few seconds later, the captain began issuing orders. "Commanders, get to the hangar, we need to secure the beacon. Tell Kaiden and the marines to suit up, they will be supporting for this."

Nihlus shook his head, shaking off whatever he had been thinking. "A small strike team would be able to move quickly and quietly. It might be enough to recover the beacon without getting into any major running gunfights. If they are good."

Anderson nodded after a second. "Fine, Alenko and… Jenkins. He has the best scores out of all the security detail. Get moving you two."

Both twins nod, and pause just long enough to stare at the still image, before turning as one, sharing a glance, and then heading for the hangar. Their glance said it all. _So much for an easy pickup._

* * *

Arlas sat on a low ridge, completely concealed thanks to his cloak, and watched the mon-keigh lay into each other with all the subtlety of an ork fighting a chaos marine. It was all brute force here, brute force there, nothing like the elegant stratagems of his own people, or the soaring maneuvers of the tau, or even the suicidal but admittedly impressive, still stupid though, charges of the Imperium.

He snorted at the last thought, and looked through his rifle scope again, watching the machine troopers fighting humans.

Humans. Here.

They were like the insects from the warp, impossible to exterminate entirely, and everywhere. Almost as bad as orks like that. He had been surprised to find the humans here, but after a moment had admitted it was better than finding orks, necrons, or tyranids. Then the insectoid ships had swooped in not five minutes later, dropped their mechanical troops and large walkers, and he had had to refrain from cursing. This universe was clearly just as fond of toying with him as the last.

Still, while the humans fought hard, the machines were more elegant in their attack, though only barely. The elegance and surprise had given the machines an advantage, and in the fifteen minutes he had been watching, the humans were steadily losing. He idly fingered his long rifle's stock, contemplating intervening on the human's behalf-

His thoughts were cut off by another mind crushingly loud horn, the psychic energies laced in the noise making his head throb even through his helmet's noise and psy dampeners. He glared at the modestly sized ship, and wished he had thought to bring a brightlance. The ability to reach out and destroy armor, any armor, would be quite a wake up call to that thing, he knew. Of course, it would immediately retaliate and bombard his location, so maybe it was just as well he didn't have one.

He was thinking that perhaps he should start joining the fight. The machines would probably butcher him just for existing, while the humans could be… persuaded. He did need something to move from one star system to another, after all.

With a grim smirk he shifted to a prone position, and sighted through his rifle. The enemy he had chosen, nearly two kilometers away on the other side of the star port, was a large red machine, about half again as large as the smaller white, red and dark brown units that seemed to be everywhere. After a second of deliberation, he targeted the larger machine's weapon, as he didn't have a good angle on its chest or head, and no way to guess how thick its armor was. He knew from experience that shooting the head of a necron or machine was usually a wasted shot, it would only destroy its eyes, and could use the other machines to see while it rebuilt its own.

He gave a soft sigh and caressed of the trigger, the weapon spat an invisible laser and hit the gun right above its trigger, superheating the metals and plastics of the gun and causing it to explode as the machine pulled the trigger. Shooting a half melting gun was never wise. Arlas smirked, and aimed again, only to realize the machine was looking right at him, as was every other machine in the area. Remembering that machines could possibly see the shot, he snarled at himself, and targeted a different machine, this one with a longer rifle that was aiming at him, and fired as they did. He felt a projectile streak past his head, but the target's chest exploded in a shower of white fluids.

While puzzled at the result, he still rolled to the side, and sighed as nearly two dozen shots streaked through the area he had just been in. He was apparently popular. He simply picked another sniper, fired, and ducked to the side, avoiding another barrage from the attempted counter-snipers, including a couple that fired to the sides to try and pick him off if he dodged. So much for this being fun, he hated smart opponents.

* * *

"Coming up on drop point two!"

Anderson nodded to the twins. "Maintain radio silence for as long as possible. This is your mission now, commanders. Good luck."

The four Systems Alliance Marines jumped, trusting their suits to making the landing soft. A seven meter fall was no joke, but they landed with barely flexed knees thanks to the mass effect fields from the ship and their own armor. Joannis looked around, but could feel her twin's annoyance, directed at someone for... After a moment, she sighed. "Jenkins, you are supposed to be securing the perimeter, not ogling my chest."

"Sorry ma'am!"

Kaiden, thankfully, was far more professional. "Perimeter secure, commander."

As the humans took in the surrounding area, Nihlus came over the comms, having been dropped off on a small path a short distance away. "Place got hit hard, commander, watch you back. Hostiles everywhere."

Joannis sent back a single click, indicating she had heard before issuing orders. "Jenkins, you have point, Jaclyn, keep him alive. Kaiden, with me, we are artillery. And maintain fire-"

Kaiden's expression sudden morphed into panic, and his pistol came up and fired twice. "What is that?"

The panic in his voice had the rest of the squad turning around, but other than what looked like a deflated balloon on the ground, Joannis couldn't see anything. A second later, a small blimp with tiny tentacle-like feelers dangling idly from its lower portion slowly hovered into view. Jenkins spoke up, fighting to keep his humor from showing and not quite succeeding. "Gas bags. Harmless sir."

Joannis closed her eyes, sending positive thoughts to her twin, who was not verbally tearing into both men through sheer force of will. She continued issuing orders like she hadn't been interrupted, "Maintain fire discipline, and stick to cover. Move out. If you have them, activate helmet cams."

The two N7s were the only ones to have integrated cameras in their visors and masks, so the group quickly moved on. They moved through the small clearing, and then followed a cliff side path for a few minutes, before Jaclyn suddenly urged the group to halt. Joannis knew her twin had felt something was off about the path ahead, open except for a few boulders scattered about and half buried, but couldn't pinpoint what, exactly, was wrong. After a moment, she reluctantly waved Jenkins forward, pointing to a nearby boulder. As the corporal slowly stalked forward, they all discovered what had set off Jaclyn's sense of wrongness.

Four drones dropped out of the branches at the edge of the forest, and turned toward the group, immediately opening fire with their guns. Jenkins was the only target in the open, they all focused on him. Jenkins likely could have lunged or slid behind cover and made it without injuries if he had been storming forward. As it was, he got another step before his shields collapsed, and he realized he was under fire.

The two N7s reacted far faster than the green marine, and both had been on edge and ready. Jaclyn set herself and charged the drones, slamming into the one closest to the edge of the forest with enough force to utterly shatter it, and Joannis used throw on Jenkins, trying to get him into cover. Her throw hit the young marine just after his shield failed, and as he flew to the rock, he caught at least another three hits that she could see. A deep bwoomp, and a feeling of vicious satisfaction, from further up the hill indicated that Jaclyn had gotten the drones, likely by landing a nova directly on top of one of the drones and getting the others with the splash. Joannis, however, had eyes on the unmoving Jenkins. "Alenko, Jenkins, now!"

Alenko rushed out and slid to a stop, kneeling beside Jenkins as Alenko activated his omni-tool. Jaclyn made it back through the simple expediency of using another charge, this time skidding to a stop a few meters to the side of the rock that Jenkins had landed behind. Joannis gave her twin a nod, before stepping up behind Alenko, and waited for him to finish. When Alenko administered a second dose of medi-gel, she knew it was going to be bad. "Ma'am, he's alive, but…"

She simply gave Alenko's back a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. "His armor is reporting a shattered left shoulder, two fractures and a break on his left arm, one on the collarbone, three broken ribs, a skull fracture, and at least two cracked vertebrae, and took three shots to the torso. He definitely got hit in the lung, hence the second dose of medi-gel, and he has a concussion. Spinal cord is probably fine, but…"

She nodded, knowing what was next. "Moving him is less than ideal. Leaving him behind, however, is less than acceptable."

Unspoken was the fact that the throw had done as much, if not more, damage as the drones shots had to the marine. But everyone of them knew the alternative would have killed Jenkins. After a moment of consideration, Joannis swore, and opened a tight channel to the ship. "Shepard to Normandy. Need an evac, my location. Jenkins is hit hard."

After a moment, she got a reply, static laced though it was. " _*crackle*_ -stood Shep- _*static*_ -two min- _*hiss*_ -keep pressing. Ov- _*crackle*_ "

Jaclyn and Alenko nodded, relief spreading through the squad. "Alenko, stay here with Jenkins, try to stay alive. We will leave our comms open. Follow it to our location after handing him over."

She gave him a chance to protest, but he simply nodded. "Understood ma'am. Leave a few for me?"

Jaclyn gave a dark chuckle, before the twins moved out, moving slowly and carefully. As they entered the forest, Nihlus came over the comms. "Careful, Shepards, got a few burnt out prefabs. Lot of bodies. See a few hostiles in the distance, will try to identify the enemy."

* * *

Arlas had done far more today than he had expected. He had wanted to just clear out a few of the machines, like their larger assault specialists, maybe even the commander unit if he could identify it, just enough to earn the goodwill of the local mon-keighs. He had **not** wanted to engage every sniper machine on the planet. He had abandoned his original position for an outcropping closer to the settlement, which also had a large cluster of boulders and rocks to act like a little bunker. It also had two paths up, but one was where he could watch it from the front, and the second didn't connect to the town. The only way to get to it was either to fly or walk through a forest, and he could see any units trying to do that. If enough opponents did try to flank him, he would abandon the position and leave a melta bomb as a parting gift.

He was currently watching something new. At first, he had thought it a tyranid, but a second look, while lining up a headshot admittedly, had changed his mind. The biggest indicator it wasn't a tyranid was the fact it carried a metal weapon and wore armor, similar to the ones the humans and machines were using, rather than some horrific bio-monstrosity with a grafted weapon. The second reason he hadn't blown open its head was because it was stalking a trio of machines as they searched the pathetic excuses for housing the local humans were using. He frowned, before deciding to destroy the machines, and see what the new alien did. Its armor did look thicker than most of the human's armors, and the black and red color scheme somewhat blended into the slowly growing twilight and flames. Though what the white patterns on its dark brown face meant, he had no idea.

He waited for the one searching houses to come out, before putting a shot dead center of mass, blowing its chest cavity open in a spray of white fluids and metal parts, before moving quickly to the other two. He killed the second as it finished turning toward him, and the third died as it moved to cover, trying to suppress him from six hundred meters away. He allowed himself to be amused, as he put down the last of the machines, and then turned to watch the new alien. He couldn't help but be excited, it was things like this that had enticed him to become a ranger, and stay a pathfinder. Finding interesting new places, meeting interesting new people, and then exploding and killing them.

* * *

Joannis finished detonating the last of her singularities, before joining her sister and the soldier they had saved. She looked her up and down, ignoring her twin's amusement at the bright pink and white color scheme the soldier was sporting. "You are alright now soldier. Take a minute, get your breath back, and then report."

She nodded, and a few seconds later straightened and nodded. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th, reporting ma'am.

I am mostly fine, a couple scrapes and minor burns, nothing serious. We were patrolling the outer perimeter, in response to an unknown ship crashing on Nirvana, when something blew past my squad, overhead. I have a recording of it here."

The soldier brought up her multitool, and a few seconds of tapping brought up a recording. It was of modest quality, but decent enough to tell what was going on. The squad was looking up, when something blurred shot past overhead, with the squad tracking and firing as best they could. It looked like a reverse triangle with two concave indentations on the front, several protrusions sticking from the front, likely weapons, and what had to be engines jutting from the back point of the triangle. She saw no blue flashes to indicate hits so either the squad had completely missed, or the vessel lacked shields. Either way, it was clear from the rest of the recording that it had been heading toward the settlement. "After reporting the contact to the unit captain, we diverted to try and find the vessel. Then, about five or ten minutes later, these wasp like ships just swooped down around the settlement and started dropping troops and bombarding large groups of our people, before all the ships left. The only one to stay behind is a massive black ship shaped like a gauntlet."

Ashley brought up another video, showing the massive ship, slowly swaying as it landed on its 'fingers', before it simply swayed in place. Joannis was idly impressed, as it towered over the largest structure, the air traffic control tower, of the space port. All three women turned as someone came jogging up behind them, but Joannis and Jaclyn quickly turned back to Williams, as it was only Alenko. "Did your group ever find that unknown ship?"

She shook her head. "No ma'am, the attackers cut us off from the others, and when we tried to push through to regroup… I don't think the others made it, and I had to withdraw or get surrounded."

Jaclyn nodded, but let her more talkative twin continue. "You did the right thing, Chief Williams, staying alive to keep fighting. It's never easy but that intelligence might help save lives later. Now, I am Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, this is Lieutenant Commander Jaclyn Shepard, my twin, and that is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko."

She would have said more, but Williams mouth had dropped open, and she was gushing. "Wait, the 'Immortal Lioness of Elysium' and the 'Butchering Lynx of Torfan' Shepard twins?"

Jaclyn's temper nearly spontaneously exploded but soothing thoughts from her sister kept her from doing more than seething and putting out an impressive biotic aura, which had the benefit of silencing Williams as well. "My sister doesn't care for that title much. And yes, now, focus. We are here to retrieve the beacon. Are you willing and capable of assisting us in its retrieval? And can you tell me anything about our opponents?"

Joannis was rewarded with a positively evil grin, as the gunnery chief checked her rifle. "Yes ma'am. And I think they are geth. Machines, walkers, and drones mostly. Lots of tech attacks, no biotics."

Joannis nodded, cutting off Alenko before he could make a comment, and pointed forward. "Jaclyn, point, Williams, support her. Alenko, status?"

"Jenkins is on the Normandy and in medical, and I am fit to fight. Ready for orders ma'am."

Joannis nodded, and prepared her Locust submachine gun. "Orders are to kill everything between us and the beacon that isn't friendly. Move out."

Nihlus suddenly decided to update her on his status again. "Shepards, hostiles are geth. Checking something out, possible sniper, will meet you at the spaceport afterwards. Going dark."

* * *

Nihlus was not happy with how this mission was going. It had started off easy, monitor the twins, decide if they were Spectre material over several missions, and get the beacon to the Citadel. Then Captain Anderson had gotten a call from Systems Alliance Command, and had started carefully wording his answers. **Then** they received word of the colony under attack by unknowns and the beacon no longer being secure, meaning he couldn't take the time to confront the captain about not informing him of changes to the mission before it became relevant.

He was currently stalking a fireteam of hostiles and had rounded a building to set off an ambush, only to find all three were dead. He had seen them less than a minute before, one entering a small building, and had moved to flank them. He had no idea what had killed all three of his targets. He hadn't heard anything but the sound of the machine's weapons, not whatever had destroyed them. Still, he could learn a bit by inspecting his opponents.

The first thing he did was stay in the alley, minimizing his exposure to possible fire. Then he level his omni-tool at the three dead troops, and let it tell him what there was. The omnitool took a minute, and then it spat out was that they had no organic components at all. He felt his mandibles spread in surprise at that, as their behavior had been too complex for a simple mech, before reading everything else it had picked up. Synthetic muscle fibers, conductive fluids, and alloys of titanium and ceramics. Fairly standard if unusually configured circuitry running throughout the entire form, it could have been a basic mech. He was also detecting a lot of activity from the antenna on the packs the three downed machines had integrated into their backs.

He was struck by what it could be after a moment of consideration, based on a confidential report he had seen from a joint turian-salarian sensor station that had been set up at the edge of the Perseus Veil. He looked down at the three troops, and shivered slightly before activating his communications to warn the human twins about their opponents being geth, and then froze.

He realized that while the geth were a problem, he had another one; what had killed them? The damage was not consistent with mass accelerator weapons, and since he hadn't heard it, it had to have been a sniper rifle. A mass accelerator sniper rifle would have punched a fist sized hole through the geth, since each looked to have been taken out in a single shot. But these ones looked more like they had taken a shot from some kind of tank round; the front of their chests were completely gone, but strangely the back plates were nearly intact.

Nihlus sighed, and rubbed his forehead plates, before looking around. Nothing near him would give the angle needed to kill all three without making the shooter move to get one of the targets or be horribly exposed. He quickly reviewed what he knew of his surroundings; this grouping of prefabs was near a small plateau, the circle of prefabs overlooked by a cliffside offering an impressive vista of fertile fields and the spaceport. All of which added up to mean that the shooter had to be ahead of him, and likely above him. And after a moment of thinking, he knew exactly where. A cluster of boulders, up on top of an outcropping.

He slunk back along the building with a smirk, getting around the corner to keep out of the sniper's sight, before radioing the Shepard twins. "Shepards, hostiles are geth. Checking something out, possible sniper, will meet you at the spaceport afterwards. Going dark."

He backtracked to a small path he had seen earlier, out of sight of the boulder cluster, and would get him to the cliffside above the outcropping. Time to see who this mystery sniper was.

* * *

Arlas was cheerfully picking off the last of the machines he could see from his position, consoling himself after the new alien had decided to run away. Regrettable, but the world didn't care about his amusement. Still, he had been in this position for the last ten minutes, and would need to move soon. One last shot and he stood up, sliding the long rifle onto his back, and jogged to one side of the outcropping he was on. He fired the grappling hook connected to his right arm into the ground, and then leapt over the edge, letting the unspooling wire slow his descent enough to prevent injury.

As he landed, he heard someone moving around the top of the cliff, though he had little doubt they thought they were quiet, and figured it was that alien he had spotted earlier. Getting out just in time to avoid contact.

He then disengaged the spikes on the grappling hook and releasing it from the cliff top, before spooling up the wire. The pathfinder started moving to the human town, drawing his fusion gun. He would be in closer quarters for a bit, and needed the heavier fire power. After all, there might be doors in his way.

* * *

Nihlus finally got to the edge of the cliff, and swore under his breath as he spotted the outcropping, but no one on it. A few seconds later, he spotted a… 'distortion' was the only word he could think of, except maybe heat mirage, moving toward the edge of the settlement. He was familiar with tactical cloaks, but this was something else. It soon arrived, and the distortion suddenly consolidated into a person, leaning against the wall of a building. They were clad in a cloak of shifting colors, which quickly matched the building, and only the uncovered black, grey, and red helm was visible. The rest had blended into the wall.

At the distance, he couldn't see much, but the figure had to be at least as tall as an average turian, judging from the height of their head. Worse, they could see him, as they turned and gave him what he assumed was a wave, before they dashed around the corner of the building. Nihlus rolled his eyes in annoyance, before sprinting down the path leading to the settlement, activating his comm. "Shepards, Nihlus, in pursuit of unknown contact, entering west side of town, heading to space port. Target wearing grey and red armor, and a color shifting cloak. Rendezvous at spaceport, quick as you can. Capture and detain if possible."

He heard the twins acknowledge his order but was focused on trying to catch up with the fleeing figure and only only had time for a single thought. _Spirits, that being was fast._

* * *

Joannis sighed, before acknowledging Nihlus' order, not that there was much they could do about it. They were slogging through the south side of the settlement, blasting their way through geth and reanimated colonists and marines. The dig site had been empty, a couple terrified scientists and a badly wounded marine in a building the only survivors, despite Ashley's claim of at least fifty marines and several dozen scientists and diggers had been in the area. They had stabilized the marine, and were now fighting through a small collection of pre-fab houses and storage units. The geth had dug in, but the twins were made to break entrenched positions.

The geth were learning the reason why the twins were considered a 'heavy solution' among the Systems Alliance leadership, as unstable singularities, field pulls, heavy throws, wide novas and shockwaves ripped through their positions. At the end of the fight, there wasn't a single intact geth chassis, only a couple geth weapons that hadn't been outright shattered, and most of the pre-fab structures needed replacements, if they hadn't outright collapsed. It was mildly surprising to Joannis to see so many standing structures. Maybe her twin had been right, and learning both the wide and focused versions of the attacks had been smart.

She waved the group forward, they had to keep moving, but she did wait a moment to let the three biotics get their breath back. They crested a hill, and looked out over the spaceport, spotting a massive ship, the same one from the distress beacon. Williams pointed. "That is the mothership. Has to be at least a kilometer and a half tall, if not even larger."

All of them cringed as suddenly a foghorn like noise ripped through the air, right before the massive ship seemed to jump into the air from its 'fingers.' It wasn't until it was rising that the twins realized it wasn't shaped like a gauntlet, but a massive cuttlefish. Intimidating as anything the twins could think of, with its shape, jet black coloration, and the flickers of red lightning running up it as it boosted into the sky faster than anything short of the fastest fighters and the absolute best frigates.

The group stared at the sky where the dreadnaught had vanished, before Joannis decided they had wasted enough time. "Enough gawking, move up."

Her twin was already moving, before she even spoke, a benefit of their rapport and bond, leaving the other two to jerk slightly and quickly catch up. As they approached the outer edge of the shipping yard, they spotted nearly a dozen more of those strange spikes, and a half dozen geth units patrolling near the spikes. The humans proceeded down the hill, as the spikes retracted, dumping their husk passengers onto the ground, and the geth all turned, leveling their weapons. But not at her group. Instead, the enemies all turned to the west side of the spaceport, the geth firing and covering the advancing husks as the geth moved to cover. The team couldn't see what was attacking them, but Joannis would have placed good money on it being Nihlus.

She would have lost that bet. A sudden blast of white light engulfed and washed past the husk horde, leaving nothing but gently hissing and glowing ground. A moment later, a distortion lunged into the cover of one of the abandoned containers near the perimeter, where it consolidated into a figure wearing a cloak that quickly matched the crate, wearing a dark grey and red helmet. They were too far to see much, but Joannis guessed it was the individual Nihlus had called about. She pointed to the geth, who were closing in on the target's position, two suppressing him while four went around the container, two to each side. "Save that target people."

Williams swapped to her sniper rifle, dropping to a knee and firing a shot at one of the suppressing geth, as Jaclyn charged the furthest of the two flanking geth groups. Alenko started moving forward, throwing out sabotage and overload programs, while keeping his barrier up and moving to cover. Joannis tossed a double throw at the pair of suppressing geth Williams wasn't firing upon, while activating her comms. "Nihlus, Joannis, target sighted, engaged multiple geth, moving to contact."

* * *

Nihlus dodged through a prefab that might have once been a shed, judging by the half melted boxes near the remaining walls, but was more concerned by the fact he was barely closer to the target now as he had been when the chase had started. He heard Shepard's message, and swore, putting on another speed burst as he sprinted. "Understood. Careful, target has powerful heat weapon. Short range, melt multiple metal walls. Advise extreme caution. Beacon status?"

* * *

Arlas had to admit that his situation was… unorthodox. He could see four humans on the path up the hill, and knew he had six geth scattered around him. During the last two minutes, he could feel a slowly building itch of dread in his mind, and knew it was coming from the ceremony he had performed before leaving his transport. From his experience and training, he knew he had about ten minutes of foresense, and foresight could see about ten seconds ahead if he actively concentrated, so the mounting dread meant he was running out of time.

He took a breath, concentrating while swapping his fusion gun for his pistol and witchblade, and heard one of the flanking machines suddenly utter a burst of static. The fire on his corner slackened a touch, so he leaned out, and saw a sparking blue field about the nearest machine as it shuddered, spasmed and twitched. With a mental shrug, he hosed it down with his twin pistol, watching in satisfaction as it was sliced to pieces by the two streams of monomolecular shuriken. He watched two glowing dark blue orbs sail into a pair of machines firing at something he couldn't see, and watched both suddenly careen through the air before slamming hard into the walls, while a streak of light whizzed by, likely at one of the other machines trying to suppress him.

Knowing he had to hurry, he activated his warp jump generator, holstered his pistol onto his left thigh, switch his sword to a two handed grip, designated the landing point of his jump, and then lunged through the immaterium to land between the two machines struggling to stand.

* * *

Joannis was an experienced N7 operative, one of the most powerful biotics in the known galaxy, had a twin that was equally powerful, and they had helped push humanity's understandings of biotics forward by at least five decades from what they had both learned to do to their own abilities, when they weren't making completely new ones up. She had fought in just about every theatre of war that existed, from urban hellholes to open fields, spaceships to tunnels, mountainsides to meandering valleys. She had killed more sentient beings than she cared to think about, and seen more strange things than anyone else she knew of, other than her twin.

Watching the stranger draw what looked like a double submachine, one under the other, and shred a geth, before drawing a sword and vanishing into a bubble of inky nothingness surrounded by lightning, easily put the unknown in the top twenty of her 'Weirdest Things Seen' list. Even stranger, they reappeared immediately, between the two geth she had tossed with only a quick flash of light hinting where the individual was dropping out. Two quick swipes of the sword cut both geth in half, before they vanished into another bubble. This time, they appeared behind one of the geth that had been trying to suppress Jaclyn, earning them an instant friendly status in her book as they effortlessly bisected the geth from crown to crotch.

Williams fired a second shot as Joannis and Alenko targeted the last standing geth, which seemed to hesitate between the stranger and Jaclyn, before picking the stranger, letting Jaclyn rip it apart with a warp. The geth, or what was left of it, fell to the ground, and for a moment, no one moved. She glanced at her sister as she began to slowly walk toward the stranger, before turning back as they began pulling their cloak off their shoulder, and touching something there. "Hello? Can you understand me?"

* * *

Arlas knew something was wrong as he landed the first jump, as his movements felt heavier than they should. Not much, but enough for him to notice. It wasn't until he made the second jump that he figured out what was wrong, and cursed himself before looking around. He made note of how all four humans were looking at him. While none were pointing weapons in his direction, they also were very definitely ready to correct that in a second. Which was fine. He needed to check something.

He pulled his cloak from his shoulder, and swore at himself as he realized that all of his armor runes had run out of power during the warp jump. He spent a second touching each one, feeding it some psychic energy. He finished, just as the human spoke. {Hello? Can you understand me?}

The pathfinder frowned, before realizing the problem. These people didn't know the Imperium's language, they had their own. However, with the dread building in his stomach, causing the knot of tension to harden ever tighter, he didn't have time to try and learn their language. He did, however, have another option, and beckoned with his hand, before running up the ramp to one side of the area they had been fighting. "Come on, there is something wrong ahead."

He made it to the top of the ramp before realizing the humans weren't following, before turning and glaring at them, though the helmet kept them from seeing it. "MOVE!"

* * *

Joannis was not surprised that the individual didn't understand them. His armor and weapons looked nothing like anything she had seen before. But then he made a surprisingly human gesture, to follow, and spoke. Though calling that speak was an misnomer and an insult to what he did. It was short, but the sheer beauty, complexity and the intertwining melodies of the utterance felt more like listening to a short piece from a renowned asari vocalist. And this individual had likely only been issuing a request for them to follow.

Her shock at that… interaction was matched only by the shock her twin felt, until the individual made it to the top of the ramp, and turned back to them. Its posture was unreadable, but this utterance was more of a sharp note rather than a short song, but when he repeated the gesture to follow, she realized that the individual was moving away. "Wake up, and follow them. Jaclyn, be dazed on your own time."

Her twin gave her a reassuringly vulgar gesture, as the four dashed up the ramp, following the alien. The alien was currently crouched on the end of a walkway, overlooking a tram station, and firing a large rifle into several geth platforms below them. Joannis shrugged, and pointed to the ramp down as she issued orders. "Jaclyn, Alenko, with me, I guess we are going to clear the tram station, apparently. Williams, you follow, but stay with the sniper rifle, I need friendly sniper support. Not just sniper support from our new friend."

As she glanced back at the alien, she watched them stand up and lean back, getting into cover as the geth shot up at them, and blinked as she watched a round bounce off the top of the stranger's helmet. They reached up and rubbed a hand over the spot that was hit, and she cursed, realizing the unknown didn't have shields. She turned and headed down the ramp, amending the squad's orders. "Everyone, our new friend is lacking shields, but his armor can deflect shots. Still, try and keep the pressure on us, rather than him. A corpse can't answer questions."

She pulled out her Locust submachine gun, planning on supporting at range with her gun and precision biotics. To avoid blowing holes in the trams, at least. As she picked her first target, and started putting rounds into it, she opened her comms. "Nihlus, where are you? We found that individual, and they joined our attack on the geth. They are trying to lead us through the tram station at the spaceport, south end, settlement side."

Nihlus responded quickly, though he seemed out of breath. "About half minute out. Don't lose."

Joannis allowed herself an amused smile, before clicking her mike once to acknowledge the order and closing the line. With Williams on sniper duty, and the alien providing elevated sniper support, the geth on the tram line didn't have much a chance. Even a geth destroyer barely slowed the group. Jaclyn muttered something about kill stealers as she jogged back to the squad, and Alenko patched a couple grazes he had caught from the geth sniper at the far end of the tram, despite his shields and barrier.

As the human's regrouped, the alien jumped down, apparently unconcerned of the five meter fall, and dashed to the end of the tram. They glanced back, and then turned back to the console, before tilting their head to one side, hand raised over the console. As Joannis moved down the tram, she heard someone pounding up and her radio crackled to life. "Shepard, where are you?"

"Nihlus, down in the tram, hurry, you'll have to jump."

She heard the turian swear, as the alien reached down and pushed a large green button on the console. As the turian lept over the railing, and landed in a rough roll, the tram started forward. Nihlus swore even louder in his native language, and leapt from the landing at the tram, where both Shepards hauled him over the tram railing like a sack of cargo, in spite of his curses. After he regained what little dignity he could, he looked around. "See you did well Shepard. Jenkins didn't make it? And who is this?"

He was looking at Williams. "Jenkins is back on the Normandy, in medical. This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th marines, local garrison. Ashley, this is Nihlus Kryik, Council Spectre, here to oversee the transfer of the beacon. Our secondary objective is up by the tram console, and…"

Joannis was cut off by a snapping sound, the sound of a near miss from a projectile. Nihlus' head snapped up even as everyone ducked into nearby cover, but relaxed when he saw that the unknown was not firing in their direction. In fact, the alien had taken cover behind the tram console, and was firing at the approaching landing site. Ashley still had her sniper rifle out, and checked through the scope before swearing. "Ma'am, lots of contacts on the landing. I doubt our 'new friend' can clear them all out before we get there."

Joannis nodded. "Move up and support the unknown. Ashley, stay with the sniper rifle until we either move into close quarters, or you get an enemy too close for sniping. Alenko, with Jaclyn, provide tech support. Nihlus, I will assist your advance. Unless you have more than just that shotgun? Or perhaps a helmet?"

The turian just gave her a flat look, his right mandible twitching slightly, before another near miss from a geth sniper had everyone diving into cover. Ashley quickly start firing back, while the rest moved quickly forward, staying low and in cover, to where the tram allowed passengers on and off. Between the two snipers, all the longer ranged geth units were destroyed before the tram arrived, and the rest of the geth were forced to abandon the tram loading area.

It also quickly revealed something horrifying, a massive demolition charge, large enough to turn most of the settlement into a crater. All the humans and the turian stared at the sight, before Nihlus snapped an order. "Shepards, anyone have electronics or bomb defusing training?"

All three females turned to Alenko, who jumped across the gap between the tram and the landing, not waiting for the bridge, and ran over to the bomb. "Got a bit more than five minutes on the timer, but my scanner is showing two… no, three more similar signatures. Ma'am, leave Ashley with me, I need someone to cover me while I defuse these things."

Joannis nodded, and turned to Ashley, who had already switched to her assault rifle, and was taking cover behind a crate, where she had a good view of both of the ramps leading from the landing platforms to this particular loading zone. That left the Spectre, the two Shepards, and the unknown, to clear the rest of the geth so Alenko could get to the remaining three bombs. The unknown vanished in another inky sphere of nothingness, causing Nihlus to swear under his breath, but the unknown didn't reappear in the landing zone, so the other three moved up. A long hiss and a snap, followed by the scream of rapidly expanding metal on the other side of the tramway, gave a good indication of where the 'new friend' had gone.

What he had done, however, was a mystery until the group got to the top, and spotted a massive hole in the crates, containers and retaining wall of the spaceport. The ten meter thick wall was intended to keep space vessel crashes from blasting out wherever and destroying other buildings, ships, or shipments. Now, it had a several meter deep hole in it, and the unknown was crouched by a thick metal crate, exchanging fire with several geth platforms.

The geth didn't have an immediate line of sight on Joannis and company, so the three soldiers took a moment to examine the situation, putting together a plan of action. They were on a storage site for cargo unloaded from ships in the port, and the landing pads were on the other side of the tram lines, with a retaining wall between the storage area and the actual landing pads. Several crates and containers were scattered about the far side, where the unknown was busy blasting geth, but on their side, only a couple long crates, pressed up against the railing, were present. There was also a few bridges that led across the gap, but the one behind them, that would have led over the tram, was destroyed, while the one ahead was intact.

The geth had moved crates to provide cover for them while denying any attackers across the bridge cover, but the alien's ability to apparently teleport had put him in a perfect flanking position. With the geth distracted, the two N7s and the turian could easily get across the killzone, likely before the geth could turn to counter them. As they moved to the bridge, Alenko opened a comm. "First bomb down, the other three are across the gap. Wait, why am I only seeing two? Ma'am, did you or another of the group do something to one of the bombs? I only have two left, should have three."

Joannis glanced at the large hole, having a sudden, sneaking suspicion about what had happened to the missing bomb. "Alenko come up here, and point to where the missing bomb SHOULD be."

Alenko and Williams both climbed up the ramp to her position, Alenko focused on his omni-tool. After getting to the top, he turned and pointed. Straight at the hole. "Should be right… Oh. ... I think that should count as cheating, not as disabling the bomb."

As the watched, their 'new friend' drew a shotgun sized weapon from his back, leaned around the corner, and pulled the trigger. The metal crate he was using for cover lost its side nearest them, revealing the interior to be empty, and a large chunk of the door. The container in front of that one, however, lost its back half, and Alenko blinked at his display. "Correction, one bomb left ma'am, and that definitely counts as cheating."

That got a chuckle from the twins as they watch the unknown duck back into cover, as several geth started trying to rush him. Joannis got the group back on track. "Jaclyn, Williams, keep that one alive, then move to flush out the last of the geth. Nihlus, Alenko, with me, we are storming that bridge."

Nihlus had a bemused look on his face, if she was reading the turian's expression correctly, but Alenko just nodded, activating his barrier again and drawing his Kessler pistol. As they moved to the bridge, and prepared to cross, Nihlus just looked at her and nodded. "Regardless of how this turns out, I am glad I endorsed you and your twin for the Spectres."

Joannis was already giving the signal to begin, and heard both her twin open up with her usual biotic charge, and Ashley fire her Avenger sniper rifle. As they rounded the corner to hit the geth, she finally processed what Nihlus said, but dismissed it as Nihlus' shotgun boomed, shredding a geth trying to fire at Ashley. Caught between the two attacks on different fronts, the geth couldn't stand anywhere without being in the open to one side or the other, and quickly fell.

As the last geth fell, both twins looked around, and then nodded. "Clear. Alenko, get to the bomb. We should have a couple minutes left at least."

Nihlus headed toward a door, set building attached to the wall. "Looks like it should be in…"

Whatever else Nihlus was going to say was rudely interrupted as the wall into the building exploded. Nihlus was thrown back, his shields shredded and several pieces of plastic and metal sticking out of his armor, as a geth rocket trooper and a geth Juggernaut blew the wall out. Joannis wasted a second wondering how the massive juggernaut, three and a half meters tall, had somehow squeezed through a slightly more than two meter door meant for humans. She was still turning, and idly noted the rocket trooper turning to her, but before she could fire, the rocket launcher suddenly exploded. The explosion engulfed both geth, but only the juggernaut was still standing, making it easy to decide what to target.

A quick firefight later, and Joannis was glaring at the geth destroyer chassis. "Alenko, get that last bomb disarmed. Jaclyn, call the Normandy, find out if any hostiles are in the air, and if not, they can assist ground forces with their guardian lasers. Ashley, you are on overwatch, try to keep us from getting ambushed."

A sudden fear, that the unknown alien might have vanished, made her quickly look around, but she found him sitting on the edge of a large shipping container, idly watching them, his rifle, almost as long as he was tall if she had to guess, idly resting on his knees. That worry relieved, Joannis started over to Nihlus, but Ashley stopped her. "Ma'am, I am trained in first aid. Would you like me to help?"

Joannis sighed, and shook her head. "No, take over, I will stay on overwatch. Once Alenko is done with the last bomb, he will take over keeping Nihlus alive, and you keep him from being interrupted. Me and my twin will patrol the landing pads, ensure there aren't any hostiles there, and see if we can locate the beacon."

Her twin, naturally, took that moment to interrupt her. "Found the beacon."

Joannis' head whipped around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash, and she glared at her twin through her visor. "Where?"

Jaclyn pointed through the opening to the landing pad, and then shrugged. As Joannis got around the corner, she glanced over, and rolled her eyes. There it was, right out in the open, gently pulsing and glowing. "Naturally. Come on, Jaclyn, I see spikes. Ashley, you okay there?"

Sure enough, there were a dozen spikes scattered throughout the landing pad, and at Ashley's nod, the twins headed for the ramp down. As they got on the ramp, the spikes slid down, the husks stood up, and then the husks went flying as the two biotic powerhouses slammed into them. It was gruesome, one sided, and hardly worth the effort. As they finished Alenko called them on the comms. "Commanders, a survivor in the shack, fading fast. You want to hear this."

Joannis jerked her head at her twin, letting her dash back to the shack with a pair of biotic charges. Not only was she faster, she also tended to be less distracting when she wasn't radiating pure fury. Joannis sighed and finished the last sweep of the area around the beacon, before she turned to head back herself. Only to see a husk lunging from between two crates. One of its arms was torn clean off, evidence that they had blasted it earlier, but the other was reaching for her face. She quickly corrected that its status by flinging a warp into its chest, but the husk's body still impacted her; the sudden impact knocking her back a couple steps.

Right into pulses of the prothean beacon.

* * *

Arlas watched the first human female in jet black armor get knocked backwards by the corpse, and jumped over the railing. He then concentrated, and let his body follow what he could see with his foresight, glad he had renewed the guidance ceremony. Renewing it was far easier than just starting it, and he found himself standing to one side of the beacon, looking at the side. The humming was frantic and loud, and he could hear someone screaming from the ramp, but he didn't turn. Instead, he returned to the trance of guidance, and let the humming and foresight guide his actions.

He could hear the obelisk adding soft screeches to the humming as he steadily walked around it, and then his body suddenly brought the long rifle up and fired, the shot connecting with the side of the obelisk, punching through the armor and hitting something inside. He opened his eyes, and nodded to himself as the human caught in the obelisk's field collapsed, the second one in black armor rushing to her side as the obelisk lost power. He put the rifle back on his back, collapsing the extended barrel and moved to sit on a crate. "So it begins."


	6. Debriefings and Complications

**Chapter 6 - Debriefings and Complications**

 **A/N -** _Another shout out for my beta, for putting up with the sheer number of grammar mistakes and poor word choices. Also for putting up with my requests that they hurry up and finish so you all can get to enjoy more of the Pathfinder's antics._

 _Put up a poll on my profile, asking what kind of training he should do next. It will be up until I get 'enough' votes, or need an answer for further story missions. Head on over, toss a vote, help the Eldar decide how to focus his future training._

' _Blood for the BLOOD GOD!' - Most common chaos battle cry._

 **Edit (26 Oct 2017):** fixed some grammar mistakes, typos, and a lore problem.

Anderson stood in the mess hall, staring into the medical bay of his frigate, and rubbed his forehead. Commander Jaclyn Shepard stood beside him, watching her twin with barely contained impatience. Dr. Chakwas had her hands full even with the ship doctors from the patrol fleet, trying to keep two severely wounded individuals, Jenkins and Nihlus, stable, while also trying to figure out what happened to Joannis Shepard. They were currently sitting in the Normandy, which was docked at the spaceport where the beacon had been moved by the geth, though for what reason, Anderson could only guess.

Anderson and Jaclyn were the only two in the mess hall, with most of the crew either busy helping move extra supplies from the local garrison to the ship, including a few handfuls of geth weapons that they had scavenged from the last few fights, or helping clean up the signs of combat. The rest of the patrol fleet, arriving a half hour after Joannis had been rendered indisposed by the beacon, were busy either securing the star system or helping the colony.

Anderson shook his head. "What a mess. How are you holding up, Jaclyn?"

Her immediate answer was a flicker of her biotic aura, before she took a deep breath. "Been better, sir. Not enjoying not being beside my sister. Feels weird, being awake when she is unconcious. Want to be in there beside her, but the docs need the room I would be taking up. How is the colony doing?"

He knew she was trying to distract herself from her twin's condition, and sighed. "The civilians are mostly fine. They had enough warning to get everyone under some kind of cover. Civilian casualties are ridiculously light, considering we think the geth dropped at least a thousand troops, and had air superiority for at least ten minutes before the ships pulled out.

If you mean the local garrisons, though…"

He glanced at a datapad in his hand, and sighed again. As the highest ranking office with the most time in grade, he had the responsibility of reporting to command exactly how bad it was. And it was bad. "The 212th is literally gone. Other than the wounded marine you found in scientist camp near the dig site, and Chief Williams, we have enough casualties in their area of operations to account for the entire unit. All two hundred and forty eight of them.

"The other three infantry units aren't much better. The 213th is at a quarter strength, and the 214th and 215th are both at a third, and that includes the critically wounded that might not be fit for duty again. And no one above the rank of service chief survived from those units.

"The 1152nd Armored was also wiped out, all twenty makos gone as well as their barracks, hangars and service structures, most in the initial air strike that wiped out most of the main military facilities. If it wasn't for that early unknown sensor contact…"

He shuddered at that thought, they would have been hit while trying to scramble everyone, or even while they had been unaware. Eden Prime wouldn't have had any Systems Alliance defending it, and the civilians would have been relying on smuggled guns and whatever they could grab from the wreckage. The geth would have likely massacred them all. So, for that, their… unexpected guest could at least be thanked.

That thought made Captain Anderson glance at the mess hall holoscreen, but the unknown was still where he had been, right beside his vessel. It had glided in and parked in the landing bay next to the Normandy, and then the two had stopped moving. He had even put most of his weapons away, though he still carried that strange over-under handgun and his sword. He still wore that camouflage cloak, though now it wasn't blending into the surroundings.

Still, the video feed reminded him of the real reason he had come down, and turned to Jaclyn. "I need your report on the mission. I know you would rather wait and do it with your sister, but command needs it ASAP."

She gave him a reluctant nod. "Video, typed, or verbal?"

He gave her a sympathetic pat on her shoulder, glad she was out of her armor, even if she still had her Talon side arm. "Verbal, at the table, though I need your helmet camera's recording."

She immediately brought up her omni-tool, and sent the requested file, as they headed to the table and he continued talking. "Most of it is pretty cut and dry, especially with the recordings. While I will need a written report later, we can just hit the 'high' points with the verbal. First, Jenkins. What happened? Two minutes off the frigate and he comes back looking like he got bombarded and then run over by a hovercart."

She quickly and succinctly described their advance from the frigate, how they had come across the path, and how she had indicated, through hand signs, danger ahead, and ordered Jenkins to cover to support the rest of the squad's advance. And Jenkins had walked instead of storming to the cover, as was proper among the N class operatives. Anderson nodded, and added a note of seeing about adjusting basic training to teach recruits how to properly cross possibly hostile areas. Especially areas where enemy snipers might lurk.

"Next point, Nihlus. Spectres don't usually come back from missions with bits of pre-fabs sticking out of them."

His comment got a flicker of a tiny grin from her, before she described the last fight with geth units, and how the area had been cleared, and the group had dispersed to find the last of the demolition charges, Nihlus in particular heading to a security substation in the landing port. How the juggernaut and rocket trooper had blown out the wall to get him, and the resulting fire fight until Ashley had started doing her best to plug holes with medi-gel and using omni-gel to immobilize the pieces that had impaled him.

Anderson simply nodded, and waved the Chief off as she entered the room and started toward them. "Next, Joannis. How did she get alone to interact with the beacon?"

Jaclyn flushed with anger, but Anderson knew all of it was for herself. "I received word from Alenko that he had found a survivor in the security substation, though he was fading fast. We had just cleared the last of the husks from the landing pad the beacon was on, so she dismissed me to go, as I could get there faster than here."

She paused, looking at the medical wing with a frown as the doctor from one of the patrol fleet said something to Dr. Chakwas, who quickly headed over to Joannis. Jaclyn forced herself to stay sitting as Dr. Chakwas frowned, before saying something, but didn't look overly concerned by whatever they had noticed. Anderson coughed to get Jaclyn back to the briefing. "So, you got to the shack and...?"

The N7 operative shook her head, before brushing her hair back and answering. "I found Lt. Kaidan Alenko trying to keep a local security guard lucid and stable, but he had been shot at least four times, and wasn't completely awake or aware. He managed to tell us about a turian attacking the station, and how he had said that 'when you get to your filthy hell, tell them Arterius sent you,' before shooting the other guards in their heads. Only reason he wasn't was because he was half buried under a fallen terminal, but this Arterius still shot him in the gut twice. His light civilian armor didn't do anything to stop the rounds.

He heard Arterius then ordered the mechs to wipe and destroy everything. At that point the security guard blacked out, but came to during our big show down with the geth. The demolition bomb had been placed in front of him, protecting him from most of the errant rounds, but also meant Alenko didn't find him until after disarming the bomb and he started checking the bodies."

She took a quick drink from her glass. "The security guard had managed to pull a streaming copy of the security tapes onto a stand alone OSD before the geth had come in, so we got a copy of everything until the Geth performed the wipe. The guard managed to point me to the OSD, which he had either tossed behind one of the terminals or it had gotten thrown there while the geth had attacked the station, and then passed out again. The lieutenant couldn't keep him from expiring soon after. Too much blood loss and trauma according to lieutenant Alenko. At that point, I heard Joannis scream in pain, and ran back out to the beacon to see her floating in front of the beacon and the unknown just watching from the side. As the noises from the beacon reached their highest, the unknown shot the beacon once, causing the it to drop Joannis and deactivate."

Anderson had been frowning for nearly a minute at this point, but before he could get her to go back to confirm something, his omni-tool chimes an alert. A priority message, from one of the ground teams. He sighed, and ended the recording of the debriefing. "Sorry, Jaclyn, we will have to do this again later."

He answers the channel, letting his irritation into his voice. "What is it?"

The security detail on the other side sounded a bit nervous. "Sir, the unknown just… have to say 'attacked' servicewoman Draven. Need orders."

He blinked, and immediately turned to the view screen. Which showed the unknown still leaning against his vessel, having not moved. He growled, and stalked to the elevator, heading for the hangar. "Private, on my way, don't attack unless he draws on you. I don't want to start an incident with an unknown race.

Jaclyn, stay here, keep an eye on your sister."

He entered the elevator, and grumbled at the speed. Why it took longer a minute and a half for the elevator to crawl from the mess hall to the hangar, all of seventeen meters, he would never understand. Sure, engineers could talk about safety standards, conflicting eezo fields, and loose magnetic plates all day, but it still didn't explain the slow speeds. He stalked out of the hangar and onto Eden Prime a minute and a half later before looking around for the problem. Servicewoman Talitha Draven was on the ground holding her head with Caroline Grenado checking on her, and all five of the security detail were pointing their Lancer rifles at the unknown, as was lieutenant Alenko. The unknown was still leaning against his vessel while sitting on a crate, seemingly unconcerned with the multitude of weapons pointed at him.

Anderson sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, before marching over to Kaiden. "Lieutenant, report."

Alenko stepped back, behind the line of marines, and kept his pistol aimed. Anderson noted the unknown's head turn slightly toward him. "Sir, I was with the marine detail, doing final checks on the perimeter before turning it over to Corporal Palnik, when servicewoman Draven suddenly screamed. None of the marines or myself saw the unknown move, but he was suddenly behind Draven, one hand on the back of her head. Once he let go, she collapsed, and he walked back over to his seat, and hasn't moved since. Servicewoman Grenado has been checking her."

"I did not attempt or desire her injury. I simply required some minor assistance, which she provided."

The voice was surprisingly... flat and monotone, though slight inflections made the evenness of the delivery that much more unnerving. All of the heads present turned, and stared at the unknown. "You understand me. Good."

Everyone blinked at that statement, before the unknown turned his head back toward Anderson. "Now, you are in charge correct?"

Anderson blinked at the rapid change in conversation, before trying to regain control of the situation while still being polite. "I am Captain David Anderson, in charge of this vessel. As the ranking Systems Alliance officer, I formal offer greetings on behalf of the Systems Alliance, and hope that there can be peace between our peoples. But what did you do to my enlisted?"

The figure had been in the process of jumping down, but at Anderson's statement, they had froze in place. The only noise was the sound of protesting metal as the crate the figure had been sitting on slowly deformed under the pressure of their grip. Anderson could feel their eyes boring in his despite the helmet and wondered what he had said. After a moment, the figure seemed to relax slightly, and finished jumping down. They landed lightly but gracefully, their movements almost like a dance as they wove between the marines. They moved so fast and fluidly that Anderson heard several of the marines swear as they tried turned, trying to keep an eye and their weapons on the unknown.

The unknown stopped in front of Anderson, making the captain suddenly realize this being was almost a head taller than him. While his voice remained as emotionless and even as before, Anderson could feel anger radiating off of him. "We shall see, mon-keigh."

The figure stepped back, and gave a strange bow, before straightening, though Anderson couldn't shake the feeling he was being mocked. "I am Arlas of the Eldar race, of Craftworld Ae'Imedra. I presume you desire to present me before your… leaders?"

Anderson stared in confusion at the… Eldar, he had called himself, wondering how he knew that. Most of the crew had no idea about the beacon, let alone the second orders. After a moment, he realized it was obvious that someone would want to talk to the Eldar, and nodded. "Yes, assuming you are not going to assault any more of my crew."

He watched the eldar nod. "Very well, I will have my ship land in your ship's hangar bay, and I require to stop by the ice planet. I wish to determine the status of my primary ship and its crew."

Anderson nodded, before watching the ship gracefully back into the Normandy's hangar, the eldar stalking up into the bay behind his ship. He watched the eldar for a moment, before waving to Lt Alenko. "Stay near him, just to keep him out of trouble and keep the others away from him. And try to _politely_ keep him out of any sensitive areas."

He watched the lieutenant jog after the alien, and shook his head. "Marines, back inside, two by the ramp, two by the stairs in the CiC. Once offworld, the ramp pair are relieved until the next shift. Gernado, is Draven able to be moved, or do I have to turn the mess hall into a temporary med bay?"

Servicewoman Draven answered his question. "Just a headache and some dizziness sir. I can work."

He gave the woman a calculating look before nodding his head. "Alright, but let your section chief know about the incident."

Anderson watched the two head up the ramp, before sighing and heading back inside. As he got to the top, the ramp sealed shut with a hiss, and the security detail headed for the lift. A quick look around showed Lt Alenko at the back of the eldar ship, his face carefully neutral. As Anderson walked past the vessel, he couldn't help but notice that it floated nearly three meters off the deck, instead of resting against it like he expected. He wanted to sigh in frustration, but he had been sighing enough already, and more would disrupt the morale of the crew. So instead, he simply diverted to Alenko, to see what was going on.

Alenko reported without needing a prompt. "Came into the bay, jumped up into the back of the vessel, and then sealed it, sir."

Anderson stopped and looked up, before looking back at Alenko. "You mean to tell me he physically leapt three meters into the air?"

Alenko had a look of mild disapproval on his face, but nodded. "Yes sir, without a biotic aura, either."

That earned a reflexive sigh of annoyance from Anderson, which at least removed Alenko's frown for a moment. At least until he grimaced slightly in pain. Anderson gave him a sympathetic nod. "Implant flaring up again?"

Alenko frowned harder at being caught, but nodded. "Yes sir, but I can-"

Anderson cut him off with a slash of his hand. "No, you go get that treated. Knowing you, you have probably been flaring since before the mission ended. I can wait for our visitor. Not like we can move with his vessel unsecured anyway. That is an order, soldier."

Alenko reluctantly nodded, and Anderson made a quick call from his omni-tool. "Jaclyn, to the hangar. Yes, I know you would rather wait for your twin, but I need you down here. ... No, I just released Kaidan to get something for his migraines. ... Yes, I have the unknown on board, as well as his name, race, and the name of his homeworld. … That is why I need you down here. … No, no need to armor up, besides, from what chief Williams told me and I saw on the videos, armor didn't seem to do much to slow him down."

A voice from above him interrupted. "You do not need a guard. Especially not one of the twins while the other is injured. What do you need, Shipmaster Anderson of the Systems Alliance?"

Anderson looked up, and spotted the eldar sitting on the edge of the rear bay of the vessel. "Nevermind Shepard, unless you just want to keep me company."

An outsider would hear that Jaclyn Shepard had a choice but in reality it was actually a code phrase that meant the opposite. He killed the comm line, and looked up to see the armored figure shrugging at him. "Your choice, Shipmaster Anderson. Now, what do you need? You are clearly standing outside my vessel with a reason."

Anderson had the feeling his 'guest' was being entirely sarcastic, despite the complete lack of emotion in their voice, and only tiny inflections, often on the wrong syllable, but he quickly discarded off the feeling. "Several things, actually. First and foremost, we need to secure your vessel before we can leave. Second, this is my vessel, and we need to discuss rules. Third, I am attaching a guard to you to prevent anyone from causing an incident."

The eldar looked down at him, before nodding. "That is agreeable. My ship is already secure. I see no harm in an escort if they are not inside my vessel. What are the rules you mentioned, shipmaster?"

Anderson glared at the eldar, but kept his voice level. "It is captain, not shipmaster. First, don't attack the crew. Second, don't go where the escort says you can't go. Third, if I tell you or your escort asks you to leave an area, you leave. This is a warship, and I would rather not risk you getting killed before you can meet our leaders."

Arlas simply sat unmoving, as he replied with that emotionless voice of his. "As I said, this ship is secure, and can not move without either my or my second-"

The eldar used a word from his own language, apparently not finding one that he liked in the human's, before continuing like he hadn't swapped languages. "- allowing the movement. I doubt your primitive attempts to move my vessel will succeed, regardless of what you do unless you damage my vessel. As for the other rules, I see no reason to object, though if someone attempts to force entry onto my vessel, I can and will return the largest pieces back to you. And I have no wish to meet your leaders. I am a scout, here to see if it is safe for the rest of my craftworld. Being given lies and fabrications by your leaders will not assist in that objective. Travelling on a warship is likely the best chance to complete my assignment."

Anderson simply stared up at the Eldar, before pulling up his omni-tool. "Joker, Anderson. Get us into orbit, and set a course to the planet Nirvana. Our new guest wants to see something there. Take it easy, at least until orbit."

He cut the comm as Joker acknowledged the order, and brought up a different screen on his tool. The screen displayed a schematic of the Normandy, and when he tapped on the display, it zoomed in to the hangar. He tapped a few keys, and against at least four regulations that Anderson knew of, cut the mass effect safety field in the hangar by half. That meant things would have closer to their normal mass, and would strain against restraints and slide around the bay if not secure. Regulations required things to be lashed down enough to resist movement while they had no reduction of the mass, so the only thing that **should** have moved was the vessel idly floating above him.

Instead, he watched the eldar simply stare down at him, not moving even a fraction of a centimeter, while four crates, several weapons, and the mako began sliding about the bay. Anderson glared at the loose items, before restoring the mass effect safety field and looking up at the unmoving vessel, actually looking it over for the first time, and the first thing that struck him was the fact it barely fit in the hangar. Next was the shape, an inverted triangle, with two gentle concave indentations to either side of the cockpit, under which was a massive barrel. On each wing was a scoop and grate covering them, and further from the cockpit were two point weapons, probably for engaging other fighters. He could see two fins above the six massive engines on either side of the lander's bay door. Anderson realized had distracted himself and turned his attention back to this eldar. "Alright, you vessel is secured. Now, how did you do that?"

The eldar shrugged, a surprisingly human gesture and then lept down. Anderson watched as the eldar took the three meter fall with barely flexed legs, indicating either some absurdly powerful muscles, or that his suit did more than it appeared at absorbing impacts. "Gravity tethers, usually used to dock it in locations where the curious would not look for it."

The eldar seemed to stare at Anderson for a moment, before walking around the vessel, idly pointing out things as they talked. "The vessel is a landing craft. Designed to move troops from orbital vessels to ground combat theatres with aggressive and significant hostile presences, before returning to its vessel to duplicate the procedure. This particular model is modified for extended patrols in unknown space. It is able to move up to fifteen individuals in addition to a hovercraft and is armed to counter whatever is blocking the vessel form landing. It also can stay on station and provide heavy air support."

He, and by now Anderson had seen and heard enough, despite the almost monotone voice, to guess the eldar's gender despite not seeing the face, turned back to him as he finished pointing out the weapon points. "Perfect for a warrior who might find himself wandering far with no other ship. Mostly useless for a diplomat. A larger vessel for long ranged movement and a smaller for landings and meetings would be far more sensible."

Anderson quickly realized that the eldar was revealing a lot of information, but what he wasn't saying was equally important. "Fair enough, I will pass along your… request to remain, but it will be up to my superiors. And they will want to… learn more about you and your people before they would even consider such an agreement."

Anderson frowned up at the large landing craft, before turning back to Arlas, with a question. "What kind of weapons do you use? If they require ammunition, replenishing unusual types of projectiles will be a problem."

The eldar simply turned back and nodded slightly. "I have the means to provide additional ammunition to all of my weapons. As for what types of projectile weapons, I have plasma, laser, and projectile based weapons, as well as a few your people wouldn't recognize as weapons yet. But, you have things to be doing in the present, shipmaster. And questioning the new alien is one for later."

Anderson gaped at the alien as he ran a hand across the vessel, just barely able to touch the bottom most points of his 'Raider' without stretching. The only thought running through his head was, _How did he know that?_

Then the alien turned, nodded to him, and tapped the side of his helmet, before heading up to the nose of the craft, and idly picking up one of the unsecured weapons, snapping Anderson out of his startlement. He turned to the lift, and hit the call button, while bringing up his omni to send out a page. "Requisitions Officer Rowley, this is the Captain. Report to the hangar, you have loose equipment littering my bay. Then report to me in the CiC."

Anderson pushed the button for the second floor, bypassing the weapon systems, weapon range, and gym deck, before leaning against the wall, enjoying the feel of cool metal against his forehead. It only lasted a minute, and by the time the elevator doors opened, he was the picture of a captain in full command of his vessel. He was most certainly not a confused man trying to figure out what his command or that alien wanted or what he was going to do now that his mission was in shambles.

* * *

Arlas finished doing the mental exercises that would eventually expand his psychic abilities, and stood up. He had done them twice in the last few hours, and was deciding what to do. A simple relaxation of his mind allowed him to 'sense' what was going on in other parts of the ship, but to truly understand these mon-keigh (he was using the second lightest meaning of the word), these humans he had found, he would have to interact with them. He was an outcast and used to moving among them when necessary, so it wasn't as much of a problem for him. But he could fully broadcast his intentions and emotions, and it seemed not one of these humans could even dimly sense him. Of course, that did give him the opportunity to enjoy himself at their expense…

He jumped down to the deck of the hangar while contemplating how best to amuse himself. A glance showed one of the female humans nearby in what he guessed was a 'casual' outfit, despite its coarse makings and lack of colors, along with another one near the elevator in their idea of armor. Heavy enough to make them too ungainly to dodge, not heavy enough to stop even lightest of rounds, or even provide decent coverage. Their shields altered that formula a bit but not enough in his opinion. After all, that one… turian, according to his new language, had been impaled by building material in spite of his shields and armor. And he had been at least four meters from the explosion, more than enough to dodge, though that problem might have been because of biology rather than equipment.

He stepped onto the elevator and pushed the top most button, wondering why the humans had a 'mess hall' and didn't just clean it was beyond him. He knew what they meant by medical, almost as bad as an ork painboy, but what a CiC was, and why it was spelt that way was beyond him. He knew he wasn't going to be allowed on the 'Weapon Systems' deck though he was confused by what a gym was; his current procured memories didn't provide enough information. A farseer might have been able to psychically acquire an entire language, with context, from several beings at once at range, but all he could do was get parts of it from one after nearly touching them.

So he was a bit surprised to step out of elevator into a surprisingly clean hall, instead of a mess. He examined the room, ignoring the dozen and a half humans in it staring at him, before noticing a staircase to both sides. The captain's mind was further above him, so Arlas headed for the stairs ignoring the stares and shock from the crew members in the not-mess hall. Of course, he was wearing only his black and red chest plate and helmet, as well as his dark grey mesh bodysuit, so perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised.

When he arrived at the next landing, and the entire crew of that room turned, Arlas sighed in the privacy of his helmet, and made a note to wear the greaves when dealing with the prudish mon-keigh. They apparently hadn't reach the emotional maturity to not let lust consume them at any given second. A glance to the back of the room where he could feel the captain, showed another armored human outside the door blocking the entrance. He frowned at the sight until he opened his mind a touch more, trying to see how far from the ship they were, and heard the spirit crew.

He turned and headed for the cockpit just as someone started speaking over the ship systems. "Joker here, would someone let our alien freeloader know that we have arrived over his wreckage? In case he wants to yank the rims or something?"

Arlas had lengthened his stride, quickly closing the distance to the pilot who he could hear further down the main chamber. The entire structure made little sense to him. The ship was tiny and contained no divide walls he could see to isolate a hull breach, and yet these humans acted like it was an impressive vessel. Many felt pride just from getting to serve on it, and some had minds that felt aged and experienced for a human.  
The outcast eldar was vastly amused to get right behind the pilot as he spoke of whatever rims were, and then tap him once on the top of the head, hard.

The unnamed pilot immediately yelped in pain and flinched away from the hard tap. "Ouch. Dammit Morkopl, I told you holyhell!"

The pilot had turned, and looked up into the black and red colored helm, with glowing dark red optics. The human clearly hadn't expected him to be actually in the room, much less immediately behind him. He frantically looked around but relaxed when he spotted the escorting marine a bit further down the hall, before glancing up and down at Arlas. "Um, don't know if you noticed, but you seem to be half dress. Uh… sir."

Arlas was projecting amusement that no one could sense, sadly. It would make playing jokes on the crew more enjoyable. "I am dressed appropriately for the situation. You are being prudish, possibly borish, maybe even disrespectful. We can leave, I have already confirmed what I need."

The pilot gaped at him as the eldar turned and walked away. And it was true, all he had needed was to reach a distance where he and the spiritseer could converse psychically, and with the Raider providing a booster, he could reach hundreds of thousands of kilometers with his thoughts instead of just a couple kilometers. The orders relayed were simply: keep what was left of the ship safe from interlopers, stay 'alive' for a given value of the word, and repair what they could. He had a vague idea of using some of the local materials to try and repair the ship, but had no idea where to find another wraithbone seed large enough for a proper sized ship other than the one inside the _Raibh Karun_ that had formed the ship.

As Arlas headed back to the stair with the slightly bemused marine following, the captain came out of his conference room. His expression was neutral but the projected emotions proclaimed he was not happy. That such an emotional emotional state like that existed was odd to the eldar, but these humans were blessed with less intense feelings, like their relatives back in the original universe. Arlas dismissed his curiosity and desire to know and turned to the captain. "Captain Anderson. I have done as I needed, and we are free to leave."

Now the human ship master was radiating confusion as well as his other emotions. "But we just…"

Arlas was glad he had decided to keep with the nearly monotone voice, as he had been carefully lifting what he could from the humans while coming up. It made an amusing game, even if he didn't get much from it but practice. "I contacted my remaining crew before coming to the… bridge, I believe the human term is? Either way, they replied they have their situation well in hand, require neither outside help or interference, and will repair the ship as best they can. Attempts to approach will result in their firing upon the interloper, though you may get as close as two kilometers on the ground, or fifty kilometers in the air."

The confusion was now consuming the human captain, as was his curiosity. "So, you ship made an unpowered crash landing upon a world with minimal atmosphere and extreme cold, is missing multiple sections of hull, and require no help?"

Arlas was glad for the helmet, and nodded. He was truly enjoying the feelings he was getting from the crew and captain. The captain shrugged after a moment, clearly giving up and nodded. "Fine then. We are done here. Joker, get us to the Citadel. We have people, beacons, and evidence to hand over!"

Arlas tilted his head to the side very slightly, allowing himself a question. "Evidence?"

Anderson stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Follow me please. You were involved, so you will likely be asked questions about what happened, what you saw and what you were doing there in the first place."

"Crashing, machines, and killing. In whichever order suits your needs."

His emotionless but pithy got a flicker of amusement from the captain but no response. He led the way down the stairs, ignoring the whispers as they left and led the way straight into the room opposite of the medical room. Anderson stepped around a desk and took a seat, waving his suddenly glowing wrist at the display on it and then tapping on something. Arlas took a seat as he waited, earning a glare from the marine and confusion from the captain as he started to wave toward the chair. "There was a chair. Therefore, I sat. If I was not meant to sit, there would be no chair."

The captain actually allowed himself to smile, before waving at the marine. "Private Olgan, wait outside."

After the marine stepped out of the room, radiating discontent at the order, the captain continued opening his orange glowing wrist technology. "All I need, in regards for evidence, is what you were doing on the planet, and why you were fighting the geth, sorry, machines."

Arlas shrugged and gave a clinical description of his reversion to real space, describing it as an 'uncontained failure of the reversion mechanism' just to see if the captain would roll his eyes. He did not and gestured for the eldar to continue. Deciding to be professional instead of amusing himself, he gave a clinical, technical, but understandable description of the fight and the events leading up to it, as well as his actions during it. He knew most of it was already known, but Anderson was apparently trying to ensure every aspect of the fight was covered. He found it quite curious.

Before he could finish the fight where he met up with the linked humans, however, the pilot pinged the captain. Anderson sighed and tapped the glowing wrist thing. "Sorry, please wait one moment.

"What is it Joker?"

The pilot was quick to respond. "Sir, the hospital ship just arrived around Eden Prime. I can micro-jump us back, to drop off the extra docs and Jenkins."

Anderson nodded out of reflex, despite not being able to be seen by the pilot. "Do it, and let the doctors have whoever they need to move him over. Have Commander Jaclyn oversee it. Once Jenkins is handed over, head to the Citadel, best speed."

Arlas waited until the pilot confirmed his orders, before inserting a couple questions of his own. "What is the glowing orange device on your forearm? And what is the Citadel?"

Arlas ignored the feel of the ship pitching about as he waited on the human. Captain couldn't reply before Arlas felt the ship _lunged_ forward, and he reflexively grabbed the edge of the desk. Anderson had a confused look, but as soon as the eldar realized he wasn't actually moving he let go of the desk. The human stared for a moment before hesitantly asking, "Are you alright?"

Arlas took a few seconds to respond before carefully nodding. "Yes, though it seemed as if the ship lunged for a few seconds there. What was that?"

Anderson stared at the eldar for a moment, before apparently dismissing his confusion. "Us going to FTL, sorry, faster than light. As for this," he waved his arm with the orange glowing device, "it is an omni-tool, basically a small computer with a variety of uses. And the Citadel is the center of civilized space, the heart of the galactic civilization. Built by our predecessors, the Protheans, and claimed by the… actually, you will likely get a full history, whether you are a scout or diplomat or even desire it, when we arrive."

Arlas gave an emotionless snort of disdain that he doubted the human would be able to understand before standing up. "Anything else, ship master?"

Anderson looked up and nodded. "Two things. First, it is _captain_ , not ship master. Second, if that under suit is all you are going to wear, keep your... hip and thigh armor on. Last thing I need is someone starting an incident because of hormones."

Arlas let himself give a dry chuckle, which seemed to shock the captain more than anything else he had done or said so far. "Very well, captain. I believe I can manage that. If you need me, I will be in my vessel."

* * *

About twelve hours after dropping off Jenkins, Jaclyn received a call from Dr. Chakwas, informing her that Joannis was finally awake. She had been meditating in the gym, unable to stay calm in the cabin she shared with her twin, and pacing the various halls of the ship had been only upsetting the crew as she radiated annoyance and fury. Being without her twin always made her feel punchy, at least more so than usual, but when her twin was injured and she was fine…

She had been relieved to hear that Joannis was finally awake and quickly walked to the elevator. One infuriatingly long elevator ride later, though it only took a couple minutes to get her to the mess hall, and she headed for the medical bay. She immediately spotted Dr. Chakwas and that one soldier from the planet, Ashley Williams, talking for a moment before Chakwas headed for a table in the mess hall and Ashley leaned against the nearby wall. Jaclyn headed for the doctor, pausing only to note that her sister was speaking with the captain through the med bay window. The turian, Nihlus, was still on his bed, but the extra pieces had been removed from his armor, and he seemed to still be unconscious but was breathing fine.

But she wasn't worried about the turian, she was concerned for her sister, though a few minutes of watching her through the glass, talking with the captain convinced her that her twin was mostly fine. Unhappy about something, judging by how much her arms were moving, but she hadn't crossed them yet, which meant Jaclyn didn't have someone or something to kill. The captain appeared like he was going to talking to her for a while, likely getting her information about the engagement to append to the report. Seeing that her sister didn't need her immediately, Jaclyn turned and headed to the doctor.

Doctor Chakwas was an older woman, though with humans now living to the one hundred fifty mark regularly thanks to gene mods and medicines and one hundred without the mods, actually guessing someone's age was a difficult proposition. She was a down to earth woman, and one of the few doctors Jaclyn had no issues going to when she was feeling below the weather, which was more than most other doctors could say. Almost like having a mother on the ship. Still, she took a seat opposite doctor Chakwas, and nodded to her. "Doctor. How is Joannis doing? She looks fine, but irritated."

The doctor smiled. "She is fine, though she was having odd eye movements right before she woke up. The irritation might be because the captain is informing her about the colony, or the main culprit."

Jaclyn shrugged. "More likely who was responsible. A shame that security guard didn't survive, he could have pointed a solid finger at this Saren Arterius. Kind of hard to find turians with their quills on the sides of their heads, and also a fake left arm. That he is a Spectre with history with the captain is only going to make this harder. And the security footage is spotty at best. Modest quality, bad angle, no sound..."

She didn't feel at all guilty discussing the details. The problem started with the fact that people could do a basic extranet search just fine on their own, and several marines had been present when lieutenant Alenko was first debriefed. When the lieutenant had dropped the name the security guard had mentioned during the debrief, the captain had responded with the first name reflexively and the marines had been paying attention. A basic search of the name immediately brought up a massive list of sightings, reports, forum posts, and other information about Saren Arterius, including the fact he was a Spectre and an absolutely ruthless bastard to everyone that wasn't a turian. While the results hadn't been formally recognized by the Council, it had gotten the rumor mill cranking. Sadly, the mill had gotten most of the details wrong, and to stop people from sending bad information back home, the captain had shut down outbound comms without his expressed permission, and then set the record mostly straight.

So now she was sitting here, idly talking to the doctor, before the captain finally finished the interview, and dismissed Joannis. Once he left, Joannis left the med bay, and paused to talk to Williams. It was only a few sentences, a comforting hand on the shoulder, and then a smile and a quick exchange of salutes, before the gunnery chief left in a far brighter mood than she had been waiting in mere moments before. Joannis watched with a quiet smile, and Jaclyn could only envy her sister's ability to calm and soothe people with so little effort. She could rile them up and make them panic, but neither was really whole without the other. Just seeing her sister was balm on her worries.

Then her twin came over, sat down beside her, and the galaxy was right again. Not a word, not a glance, she just sat down, and suddenly everything was just… right. She let herself close her eyes and just bask in the feeling, knowing it was going to be lost soon, as they returned to reality and began trying to figure out why a council Spectre, with geth assistance and the largest vessel she had ever heard of, had attacked a human colony world for a prothean beacon and then just left it there. And then she heard someone chuckling softly, and opened one eye to glare at the doctor, unaware that she had leaned over to bump her shoulder against her twin's.

The doctor met her glare with an amused stare. "I do believe that is the most calm Commander Jaclyn has been since she has gotten back on the ship, Joannis."

Her twin had the gall to laugh at her, causing Jaclyn immediately began plotting revenge. But she did admit it was nice to finally relax. Her twin couldn't resist ruining the moment however. "Come on, we need to get up to the bridge. Captain wants us to tell Joker to bring us in, and then wants the ground team ready to meet with Ambassador Udina, in our blues, not armor. Not that we need them to be dangerous. The captain went to inform the alien about our arrival.

"Now let's go get ready. We might be in for a busy day."


	7. The Citadel and Investigations

**Chapter 7 - The Citadel and Investigations**

 **A/N -** _Goodness! So much deviation! However will the plot line hold together? Through spit, glue, duct tape, silly string, and a whole lot of ab libbing, faking it, and mucking it up. :D Enjoy._

 _Also, a thank you for everyone that has sent in a review and voted in my poll. Also a shout to everyone for getting +100 follows and for 8.5k views on the story, making this the 50th most followed ME/W40k story on Fanfiction. And once again, a poll is up on my profile, go throw a vote on it._

' _Skulls for the Throne of Skulls!' - Second most common Chaos battle cry._

 _ **22 Oct, 2017 - Edit**_ _: Added some extra details about Arlas' dislike of cages; fixed some grammer mistakes and typos_

Joannis looked over the ground team that would be heading with her to the ambassador's office as they waited for the decontamination chamber to finish, the captain having gone ahead after an apparently frustrating conversation with their eldar guest. She and her sis were in their dress blues, carrying only a single gun; for her sister, her beloved Talon, while she was carrying her Kassa Locust. Alenko was in his dress blues, looking sharp despite the abruptness of the order to get into blues, and was carrying a Kessler Striker pistol, found on Eden Prime. Ashley, however, was conspicuous, both for her visible nerves, and for being the only ground team member in her battle dress uniform, though her Predator pistol had raised an eyebrow, an expensive addition to an otherwise normal arsenal. "Family gift," she had replied, before returning to controlling her nerves.

Nihlus had been picked up immediately after docking, a medical van with another turian Spectre, a female who hadn't bothered to identify herself. She had simply flashed her Spectre authorization, and then had the medics load Nihlus into the air van, and had quickly departed to get him to a hospital. The Spectre had stayed for a second air van, this time manned by two Citadel Security Special Response Teams, to arrive and fill out the paperwork to transfer over the damaged but mostly intact beacon. The Citadel forces had all paused to stare at the eldar's ship floating to one side though no one had asked about it. They had left staff lieutenant Charles Pressly, navigator of the ship and acting executive officer with both the twins and captain ashore, to deal with the paperwork.

The door finally opened, letting the four humans out. They immediately headed for the elevator leading down, and once it arrived, quickly entered, filling toward the back. The door stayed open longer than it should, and slowly shut, but no one paid it any attention, simply brooding or discussing their thoughts on the situation. Once at the bottom, inside a C-Sec station, they had to pause for a few minutes to ensure they had permits for their weapons, and so Sergeant Ashley could get a new one for her weapon. Once that chore was finished, they headed for a transit station, and got an aircar for the trip to the embassy.

Five minutes later, they were entering the embassy, pausing to get a map uploaded to their omni-tools, and headed for the ambassador's office. Udina was debating with Anderson as they entered, and stopped the debate to look over the four marines, and then glared at the captain. "Was it necessary to bring the entire crew?"

Anderson didn't bother showing any emotion at the accusation. "Only the ground team. The councilors will probably have questions for them."

Udina simply snorted in disdain. "And with the beacon damaged, and Nihlus hospitalized, the only thing saving the Shepards' possible candidacy into the Spectres is the fact we managed to find a new race."

Anderson whirled on Udina. "That is Saren's fault, not theirs. And it is not your job to criticize them for what they did or did not do. You just have to get the Council to agree to hold a hearing."

Both men had apparently been arguing, as Udina sneered at the captain. "Actually, it **is** my job to criticize them, being as I represent humanity on the largest stage. And I did get that hearing. Assuming your reports are accurate, I have already turned over all the video logs as well as interviews, reports, and what we have already found over to C-Sec. Which is very little. I suspect the only reason they agreed was because they knew we would publicly accuse the Spectre otherwise. This way just lets them keep it in house, so to speak. Which reminds me, I don't see him, where is that xeno you picked up?"

Anderson sighed, and shook his head. "He isn't interested in meeting the Council. Claims to be a scout, not a diplomat. Said the only reason he would meet with them is because he had no other choice."

Udina gave a sly smirk, practically oozing vicious glee, and making both of the twins detest him even more than they already had. "Well, he doesn't have one. Impound his vessel, and turn it over to C-Sec and the Spectres. If he has a problem with it, he can take it up with the Council. I am sure they won't mind getting to look at his technology, especially if it forces him to the negotiating table."

Anderson glared at Udina, taking a deep breath to hold in a retort. "No. You may be drunk on power, Udina, but you aren't my boss. You can no more give me an order than you can the Council. You want something like that done, call the Prime Minister, see if he will amuse your fantasies."

Anderson turned to the marines, and gestured for them to follow as he left the openly fuming Udina behind. He didn't speak until they all stepped into the elevator leading to the ground floor of the human embassy, leaving the dozen of ranking ambassadors behind. The building was four floors tall, and the elevator took only a minute to get to the ground floor, where a C-Sec substation took up the whole floor. While descending, Anderson finally spoke. "Not a word of that… debacle in the ambassador's office, understood? To anyone, anywhere, at any time."

All four marines agreed instantly, and the captain took a deep breath, before continuing as the doors opened. "The Council agreed, reluctantly, to our… request for an investigation."

They all trooped out the door, unconsciously falling into formation. Joannis could feel her twin's amusement at the realization, but the captain kept talking as they headed for the railing in front of the embassy, overlooking the Presidium Lake. "They have agreed to hold a 'preliminary' review in four hours, see if C-Sec can find anything other than our word to validate the investigation. You four were on the ground, and might be called on to testify. Either way, you are to be at the Council chambers in four hours, to assist as you can with the investigation and the hearing."

He waited a moment but none of the ground crew had anything to say so he nodded. "Dismissed."

The twins saluted and left, letting Anderson head back into the embassy after sending their passes and the meeting time to their omni-tools. After moving away from the embassy, Ashley chuckled darkly. "And that is why I hate politicians."

Jaclyn gave a snort, agreeing with the sentiment, before looking around. "Let's get something to eat. Can't get too far, or do much exploring in four hours, but we can at least wander the Presidium, see what they are offering the aristocrats."

Ashley laughed at that before nodding. "They certainly seem to think so. So, other than food, what else is there? Arcade? Casino? Combat simulation arena?"

Joannis laughed. "Nope, just a few eateries, a handful of shops, and that is about it. Most of it is parks, monuments, and statues. Oh, and the Consort's Chambers and whatever the attached… academy thing is."

Alenko gave a small smile. "That a technical term there, ma'am?"

The group chuckled as they marched out, the twins leading the way unerringly while the other two gawked like the first time visitors they were. After a moment of walking, Joannis turned and coughed at the two lagging marines. "Come on, food first, then we will give you the tour."

* * *

Arlas sat in the center of the armory of his vessel, in a clear space specifically designed for meditations and psychic exercises. And in spite of his extra training, the preparations to construct a scrying circle, and more a half day of attempts he was no closer to getting a decent divination than before. He knew the theory and how to do it, having learned during his years as a Warlock, but now, he couldn't put the theory and training into practice. They had been on this 'Citadel' for two hours now, but he was just about ready to give up.

He grumbled before standing, taking a moment to stretch before striding around the room, letting his body move while his mind relaxed. A habit he had picked up as a Warp Spider, and even centuries later he still had yet to conquer it. It felt good to be moving about.

His mind wandered through the various forms and runes needed to improve the odds of a successful divination, though as one became more familiar with the ritual and attuned to their powers, the less they needed. Some of the best farseers didn't even need a circle, just a moment of concentration and their rune tiles, and they could see for years into the future. Deciding which was fantasy and which was truth, however, took several eldar lifetimes to discern, and even then it was easy to make mistakes. His attempt at it was basically an experiment, though also because he was lonely.

He considered that thought a moment and concluded that perhaps lonely was the wrong word. It would be more accurate to think that the psychic silence that was getting to him. His people had wandered their old galaxy for sixty million years, and their psychic energies were everywhere, either directly or through reflections and reverberations. It was an underlying song of the universe, though for the last ten thousand years, it had acquired a hideous counter tone from the surging warp. Here though it was dead silent, without even the barest of whispers in the psychic underlayer of reality. It was… oddly disconcerting and alarming.

He shook off the thoughts, and turned back to the circle he had constructed, glaring at the circle he had built. His mind started tingling after a moment of glaring, indicating that his subconscious had noticed something, and was now waiting for the rest of him to notice it. He took a deep breath, ran a hand through his unbound hair, and closed his eyes, before releasing the breath. And as he opened them, he let himself smile, spotting a pair of runes in the wrong place.

Arlas required only a moment of work to fix the minor but debilitating mistake before he resumed his position in the center of the circle, and went through the series of exercises meant to help his mind relax and expand before he finally felt something happening. Then the universe vanished, and all that was left was a series of images and impressions and a pounding sense of urgency.

 _A machine clad in fleshy armor of arrogance, defiance and contempt._

 _A tower of white, in flames, raging blues and calm oranges fighting towering reds._

 _A long tunnel led to an open area, crowned a glittering clear jewel of rippling blue hues._

 _A purple mist encasing silver gems, in front of a sneering, leering serpent._

 _A flash of a blade and the thundering of primitive weapons._

 _A rhythmic pounding, swaying black shadows, and empty eyes._

 _A silhouette, encased in fire and metal, endlessly thrashing._

 _An empty window, a drifting purple star, and a circle of symbols._

 _A repeated clacking of a chrono tracker, growing ever louder._

His eyes shot open and he swore, realizing he had little time. He quickly grabbed his armor and cloak, selecting weapons based on what felt right, finally ending up with the witchblade, long rifle, fusion gun on his back and the flamer on his thigh. He frowned at the loadout, before slamming his helmet on. He would debate the merits of such a heavy loadout later. A quick sprint got him to the elevator, but after a second, he jumped, landing in the mess hall, before running to the exit. He glared at it as he approached, before jumping again, landing on the pier that connected the ship to the station, and transferred his glare to the elevator in front of him.

He did NOT have time for this.

* * *

Jaclyn wasn't sure what to be more amused about, her sister acting like a doting mother to the two marines as she led the tour of the Presidium, or the fact that Ashley was playing along, while Kaidan, as the only male, kept trying to make a mad dash for sanity and professionalism with his comments. Joannis, however, was in full flippant mode, and from what she could feel from her twin, she would be like that for at least another hour. Currently, her twin was giving a lecture to a hanar that had been preaching illegally somehow but Jaclyn was too bored to care.

They had already seen the relay monument, and had gotten their teeth to tingle from being too close, though Ashley claimed to not feel anything. Next had been the Krogan monument, and then they had visited the four stores that had been on the Presidium. Next on the tour had been a visit the Consort's area of the Presidium, but they had only seen it from outside when Joannis had decided to start playing mother than declare that her 'little boy Kaidan' shouldn't be visiting such a 'vile den of inequity and loose virtues' at his 'tender age.'

Kaidan had replied that he was older than her while Ashley just tried to not break down in hysterical laughter. Which had only made the situation worse. Jaclyn made a note to tell them the best way to deal with her twin's 'eccentric' actions was to just ignore them as best as possible. It would quickly cause her to lose interest. Sadly, they had responded which had led to her amusing herself as well as the rest of the squad except poor Alenko.

Jaclyn glanced at her omni-tool as it buzzed and noticed her sister's doing the same, but Joannis was too busy debating the merits of giving sermons without a license to notice. She opened her tool and frowned at the identification of the caller. Jeff Moreau, call sign Joker, the Normandy's pilot. "Joker, it is commander Jaclyn. What is the problem?"

Joker might be a clown with her sister, but he knew better than to joke with her. His tone was serious and even. "The eldar just booked out of the Normandy like it was about to explode ma'am. Didn't wait for the elevator or the decontamination chamber, just did that inky black teleporter thing to bypass them both. His ship is still in the hangar, hasn't moved since he got out of it. And the captain's omni-tool goes immediately to voicemail. Staff commander Pressley wanted you informed. Any orders about it, ma'am?"

Jaclyn considered her response, as this was not something they had considered. They had expected him to quietly wait in the ship until the diplomats arrived. After a moment she sighed. "Stand by, I will inform the captain."

She left the channel open and put a call to the captain, attaching the emergency contact code which forced it to alert him. She figured the unknown race running around the Citadel armed with who knew what kinds of weapons was an good reason to use it. After a several seconds of ringing, the captain answered, his expression annoyed. "Commander, what happened?"

"Sir, who is with you?"

That got Anderson's attention, and he looked around. "Alone, borrowing Udina's office. What is the problem?"

She frowned. "Connecting Joker, but our 'new friend' decided to go for a walk on the Citadel."

It took the captain a moment to understand, but when he did, the blood immediately drained from his face. "Dammit. What happened?"

"About two minutes ago, he sprinted out of his ship, and used that teleporter to get up to the mess hall, then another out of the ship onto the pier. Cameras saw him enter the elevator."

Anderson's swearing was inventive, but he quickly got back to the conversation. "What was he carrying? What weapons did he have?"

Joker linked a pair of still images of the eldar, running through the CiC and towards the elevator to C-Sec. Jaclyn moved deeper into the plants near her, and swore at the picture. "Sir, he is carrying his melee weapon, his sniper rifle, and the weapon that melted through five meters of solid metal meant to contain starship crashes and explosions. That weapon on his hip is new but that tank-"

Anderson nodded and interrupted. "Means it might be a flame thrower if not something more exotic; we have no idea what he could be armed with. Dammit, and damn him. What was so important that he left armed like that? That is enough to put a serious hole in any army you can name."

A moment of silence, before Anderson spoke. "I will see what Udina wants done. Jaclyn, stay out of the situation for the moment. Joker, get the ship on lock down, C-Sec is likely to want to see that vessel soon."

Joker nodded, and looked down at his own consoles. "Yessir, locking down the… where did his ship go?"

Before either officer could ask, Joker brought up a camera into the hangar, which was showing a conspicuous empty place where the eldar's transport had been. A couple crew members were walking around where it had been, their actions projecting just as much confusion as the pilot's tone. Joker brought up the security cameras in the hangar, and all three watched as, less than a minute after the eldar had fled, the vessel suddenly shimmered like a mirage and vanished. Two minutes later a pair of crew members entered the hangar, did a double take where the vessel should have been and then walked through its former resting spot. One had even jumped about, waving their arms to see if it was just floating slightly higher. Joker sighed, and then looked back up, a small, wry smirk on his face. "Orders sir?"

Anderson groaned. "Lock it down, Joker. No one is going to be happy about this."

Joker signed off to start locking the ship down, leaving Jaclyn to give Anderson a shrug. "Best of luck sir, need any help from us, just call."

That got a grunt from the captain before he started talking to Udina, and Jaclyn closed her side of the call. She headed for her sister figuring that playtime was over. Her sister could amuse herself later. They needed to go.

* * *

Arlas was fairly certain that running into that blue armored turian had been a mistake, but he needed the extra information. There were also blue skinned females with head tentacles, and big eyed horned bipeds that were like nothing he had encountered before, but he was in a rush now, especially after the turian had collapsed. Now he had several chasing the distortion that his cloak caused when he was running, but no one was firing at him. Yet. Luckily, he had done this particular stunt several dozen times before, at least once per world he visited for the Craftworld, so he could just let his body run while he sorted the information that turian had so helpfully provided.

Most of it was currently useless, most of the rest would require several hours of sorting the information mentally but at least now he had a rough idea of the area. Arlas figured the turian must have been the equivalent of a planetary human arbitrator judging from the fact everyone had taken exception to him 'attacking' the turian.

He moved quickly through the maze of halls, stairs and elevators, rarely moving in the same direction for long, an old hand at dodging hostile pursuit and patrols. He could and did abuse his warp jump pack when he was fairly certain they were trying to corner him just to make them work harder. It took three jumps and several minutes to get away from them, despite the locals only having a cloak and distortion to follow. Now though, he was moving slowly under the cloak and letting the followers get bored and spread out, so he could get back to searching for whatever he had seen in his vision. He could remember it clearly, each part in a clear, obvious cadence though he didn't know where to start. So he would have to keep an open mind and open eyes and see which part he encountered first, though it might take a few modifications to his understanding to actually recognize the visions in reality.

He rounded a corner ten minutes later and permitted himself a smile. He had just gotten to a balcony overlooking a large plaza, but his smile was because of one of the shops he could see. It had what looked like chrono trackers in it, and even from here he could hear the gentle clack-clack-clack of the old fashioned mechanisms. The humans back in the other realm had considered things like those priceless antiques, and only the richest of their nobles had them. He had even stolen one once, just to amuse himself by watching the noble woman rage about its loss.

He knew the order of the visions was last to first now, and that he was in the correct area. Now he just had to find the rest of the trail so he could see where the vision was leading him.

* * *

Joannis watched the clearly upset ambassador pace and bluster, and was glad that Ashley Williams and Kaidan Alenko were waiting in one of the guest rooms. At least they could relax, while the Shepards stood behind Anderson, waiting for Udina to stop acting like people cared what he thought, so the people who did the real work could get back to it. Admiral Hackett was talking to Defense Minister Rommel Kreiggeory as Prime Minister Amul Shastri was currently in a closed meeting with the rest of the parliament, rarely glancing over at Udina to see if he had bothered to stop yet. Both men on the communications were probably ignoring him though Minister Kreigeory at least was polite about his disinterest, but Udina didn't seem to have noticed yet.

From what she could understand, he was angry that Anderson hadn't physically restrained the eldar in any way despite the word 'teleportation' and the phrase 'unknown culture.' The defense minister and admiral were watching all the videos so far gathered of the eldar and had been for about ten minutes. Final done watching the video the defense minister coughed to get Udina's attention. Udina immediately stopped and turned to the minister. "I find it difficult to believe this is captain Anderson's or either commander Shepards' fault. The man can literally teleport, has access to cloaking technology far beyond what we are starting to get into service, and that is just what we have seen. For all we know, he can do things that make those look like parlor tricks.

However, captain, I need some clarification. Did you inform the ambassador of the… eldar, I think he called himself?"

Anderson simply nodded and kept his face impassive as he threw the ambassador under the proverbial bus. "Yes sir, in my initial report, in my follow up report with the gathered evidence, and in person immediately upon arrival at the Citadel."

He was merciful enough to not say more, but the hateful look Udina sent his way meant he had said enough. Minister Kreiggeory simply nodded, and turned to Udina. "Ambassador Udina, did you inform the Council that we had found a new space faring race, and that we had the only known representative on the captain's ship?"

Udina was quick to prove he was gifted in the art of story spinning. "I tried, minister, but the Council was more interested in the fact we were accusing a Spectre of besieging a colony with the geth."

The defense minister made a noise of understanding before nodding. "Alright then. Admiral, you can deal with the military folks. The ambassador and I will deal with the politicians. Give the Council a call, Udina, we can tell them about the new race loose on a station where he can only understand a twentieth of the population. Both of us. And that he is armed with a weapon that can melt or vaporize five meters of solid steel, a sword, of all things, that can cut through heavy hardsuits like butter, and other things that we don't know what they do."

Anderson nodded to the Admiral and left the room, the Shepard twins gratefully following him out to the hallway and into the guest room. He gestured for the two marines to relax even as they hurriedly sprung to their feet abandoning a previous conversation. Anderson headed for the console to open a line to Admiral Hackett while the twins took a seat. Admiral Hackett was talking with Anderson in the corner of the room, but quietly. They had a bit less than an hour to get to the hearing, and it was a half hour walk.

Jaclyn was the first to speak. "So, four hours to investigate an attack at a place that is two days distant from the Citadel. Anyone else getting a feeling we are just getting led on a wild snipe hunt?"

Joannis just laughed. "What? You mean the Council isn't just going to believe a random accusation of their top Spectre operative because of a dead man's testimony, a silhouette on a modest quality security camera, and a hunch?"

That got a snort from Ashley, but before they could continue the conversation, Anderson saluted; Admiral Hackett faded out, and the captain came over to the group. He looked over the group, before smoothing out his dress uniform. "We need to get over to the Presidium. The hearing is starting soon, and we don't want to be even a second late."

The four soldiers formed up behind their commander, and headed for the elevator. As they passed Udina's office, voices could barely be heard from the hallway, in spite of the soundproofing. Joannis watched her sister glance at the office. "Anything we need to know about that situation, sir?"

"No, it has gone higher than us, and the Council will be handling it."

That got a derisive snort from Ashley, though Jaclyn was the one to respond. "You mean actually deal with him running around, or appoint a committee to-"

"Enough."

Anderson entered the elevator, but waited for the doors to close before speaking. "I don't care what your thoughts on the council are. We need their help with the geth attack, and you will keep those thoughts to yourself until they decide one way or another. It will be hard enough without them using personal thoughts and opinions against us.

"But yes, they have alerted C-Sec about him, and all the Spectres already on the Citadel have been alerted. It will be very hard for him to move around with that many people looking. No matter what he is doing, with that many people looking for him, with all the technology and skills available arrayed against him, he will give up soon enough and let himself be found. Now, focus on the hearing, and see if we can convince the Council their top agent has gone rogue."

* * *

If Arlas wasn't in such a hurry from the vision, he would love to do nothing more than linger and keep playing with the local security. They were so delightfully dense. It was like teasing a mon-keigh back home, disappearing around one corner and then vanishing only to appear around another. And even better, no one ever thought to look up. Even the humans back home knew to check all angles when hunting an eldar, not just the horizontal ones. He nevertheless decided after losing the latest group of pursuers, with the simple strategy of warp jumping up into the shadows near the ceiling behind the group, to be a bit more careful. He did have something of a deadline.

Still, he had already seen the empty window, the drifting purple star had been the stupidest looking ship he had ever had the misfortune to see, and it was only worse when he overheard someone mention it was a warship. The circle of symbols had been either a den for games of chance, or a circular area where traders harassed everyone moving through. Now he was hunting the thrashing silhouette of fire and metal.

It took longer than he would have liked, as there were dozens of halls leading off of the market place, though only two into the casino. And the policing forces were getting more spread out, thinking perhaps he had moved out of the sector. Now, however, there were a couple of the blue skinned females, and one of the bug eyed bipeds in the area, hunting something. They were fairly subtle about it, none in obvious armor like the policing forces, but their attitudes and the fact they openly displayed a firearm, or in one blue's case three, made them fairly easy to spot and avoid. Still, the security presence only added difficulty, nothing too strenuous considering he was used to dodging immaterium augmented humans, senses as sharp as his own from his fallen kin, and the foul and unnatural senses of the tyranids. Even with his enhanced senses though, and knowing he needed to unfocus his mind to let it see what the vision had provided, he still nearly walked right past the marker, simply because it was hanging from a wall, rather than lying on the ground.

A silhouette of a standard mammalian female biped of indeterminate race, 'reclined' on the wall, made of metal wires that lit up in orange lights. He wondered why someone would waste the resources to make and power something like that, before shrugging and moving to the nearby door, the last one in the alley. He didn't immediately open the door, instead taking a moment to refold his cloak over most of his weapons, people in confined spaces tended to find large firearms intimidating, and sometimes would act without an eye to the consequences.

And so the eldar entered the room, though he was rather embarrassed that he had to wait for someone else first, as his attempts to touch the control hadn't yielded a response. Probably because his cloak was active.

Regardless, his entry still took far longer than it should, and made a note to learn about the doors when he got back. Once he was finally inside, he took a look around as he moved to one side of the door, ensuring no one would accidentally bump into him. A large circular main room, a large column in the center with a waist high barrier around it. Alcoves spaced along the side evenly, filled with tables and chairs. As he looked around, another portion of the vision kicked in as he focused on the people and his mind finally translated the 'noise' he had been hearing into rhythmic pounding. The dancers up on top of the column and tables, if such inelegant and tasteless movements could be called dancing were wearing black, and their eyes looked more like the blank stare of a corpse than those of a living person in the dim lighting.

A quick look around didn't reveal what he was looking for, purple mist with silver gems, but did bring a passage at the back of the tavern to his attention. Arlas took a moment to recharge his armor runes, not needing their various boosts to run out halfway through a fight again, before pulling his hood down, and making his way around the bar. About half the beings in the bar paused to assess the sudden newcomer, but didn't move as he ignored them. The dark colors of the armor, as well as the dim lighting, no doubt helping their decision to not get involved yet.

The exception was a fairly large biped, however, was sneering from the alcove he needed to get into, and Arlas took a moment to examine the creature. A large hump, easily adding to its already large frame, even taller than him, a wide head with eyes set to provide a wider viewing range, thick plates covering what little flesh that the armor didn't cover. A thick black plate covered this one's forehead, and a quick examination of his acquired memories provided him with the species name, krogan. The eldar didn't have time to do more as the krogan noticed he was approaching.

"Beat it, human, you aren't allowed in this area."

Arlas sighed in his helmet, before simply doing an elegant _suithehish bruath_ , or dancing sidestep, around the brute. It was somewhat surprising to the eldar when the krogan managed to grab him out of the sidestep and shoved him back into the main room. Arlas recovered without stumbling and stared at the krogan whose hand now rested on something just behind the small of his back. "You deaf, stupid, or just have a death wish, human? I said, get lost."

Neither moved for a moment and then Arlas smoothly drew and buried his sword in the gut of the krogan, the wraithbone blade easily penetrating armor, flesh, bone, and weapon in one quick movement. He simply held the blade there, as the krogan's eyes widened and gasped in pain. A quick pull of the blade removed it. The eldar had not bothered to twist it as getting stabbed in the gut would disable the mon-keigh with pain and he stepped around the krogan falling to his knees. The bar had gone utterly silent, the anticipation of a fight turning to confusion as the krogan fell to his knees, and part of the krogan's weapon fell to the floor.

He had barely gotten halfway to the door when he heard a roar. The eldar managed to turn around only to get picked up by the krogan as he was bodychecked and slammed into the wall. Arlas managed to turn enough to look at the krogan, whose eyes were now fully bloodshot and bloody spittle oozing from his mouth. "Now you're dead, meat."

He wasn't sure how the krogan had managed to shrug off the pain but he could hear the others in the main room finally moving and reacting to the fight. "It's a raid!"

"Bastard is after the boss."

"Get him."

"Everyone OUT!"

A quick slice with the blade removed the arm trying to crush the eldar's throat, but only seemed to infuriate the krogan even more, as the krogan lashed out with his other hand slamming the eldar's helmet against the wall. A stab and downward slice into the shoulder made the krogan release Arlas, followed by a stab into the brain through the descending maw as it tried to bite him, finally finished the krogan. Arlas quickly supported the body, as rounds began filling the air around him. The pathfinder pulled out his flamer and moved to the wall burning the first few thugs that were incautious enough to step into the alcove, several of the blue rounds bouncing off his runic armor's psy-shield. A blinking disk sailed into the alcove and landed behind a crate in one corner.

An explosion launched the crate into the wall behind him, prompting the eldar to move faster and discard the body. He replaced his two weapons, grabbed his long rifle, and began picking off targets with carefully placed shots as he slowly leaned about the corner, bringing thugs into his sights one at a time. He wasted a second as the last few thugs fled the common room, tracking them, before moving toward the door as he did have something he needed to do.

The psychically enhanced blade took only a minute to slice through the door, cutting through the seams to disconnect the door from the locking mechanisms. A single push caved it in, and he dashed through a store room, ignoring a handful of cowering workers. The eldar's focus was two doors ahead of him instead of the workers. A glance back showed the last worker frantically vacating the room through the destroyed door, so Arlas picked the closest door, figuring it likely to lead to a larger room. From what he knew of the local races, they equated larger space with power. He made a couple quick slices along the edges of this door, and then kicked the door in.

Arlas stepped through the door, took one look around, and froze.

He was almost at the end of his first greater cycle, the first thousand years, and during his wanderings away from the craftworld, he had seen things that had numbed his sense of horror, anger, outrage, and disgust. His kin falling into the same debauchery, indolence, and self gratification that had led to the original Fall, the casual cruelty that the mon-keigh did to each other in the name of their dying corpse god, the horrid rituals of those warped by the Immaterium to summon daemons to their cause, the implacable march of the necrontyr and their soul and star devouring gods, and the uncaring hunger of the rampaging tyranid hordes.

But seeing others in cages just barely large enough to hold them, even if they were mon-keigh, or one of the newer races, set him off. Such a sight would always set him off, he knew what it felt like to sit in one of the cages for days on end. In his case, he had been injured following a battle against the dark eldar and badly wounded enough that they couldn't torture him, and a pair of fellow outcasts had sprung him before he could be defiled more than just being caged and shackled, but the feeling of soul deep terror and pain had never truly left him. Especially since he knew exactly what his fallen kin were going to do to him, a dark eldar wych had taken great enjoyment from describing all the things she wanted to do to him once he was strong enough, and had burned her personal sigil into his neck, claiming him as her property. Once he had gotten out, he hadn't wasted time in burning the sigil off, but he still carried the large burns.

None of the mon-keigh in the cages looked up as he entered, but the feeling of absolute terror and despair was nearly a physical attack on his mind. The fact the room also contained a second, larger exit as well as crates and containers of various sizes went completely unnoticed, as did the fact that the room curved around away from him, encasing more area than he initially had assumed.

Arlas stepped out of the room, and took a very deep breath, before storming to the second door. This time he didn't bother with anything subtle, no fancy work with the blade. He simply gathered as much psychic power as he could, channeled it into his sword, and swung.

It was a fairly standard door as far as he knew, made from what the sensors in his helmet reported was a low quality steel by eldar standards. The witchblade still carved through it like a power weapon through a fresh fruit, and then the psychic power discharged, blowing half the door completely across the hallway to embed itself in another door, while the walls, door frame, and remaining part of the door bowed away from the blow. Not as much damage as his anger would want, but it served its purpose, dispersing his rage to more manageable levels.

He entered the hallway with the sword resting gently on his shoulder, his flamer pistol in the other hand. It was short, maybe five meters between the two doorways, but a secondary hallway led to one side, away from the storage room with the slaves. Arlas stepped around the corner like he didn't have a care in the world, and took in the room before him. The room was fairly modest, a large desk in the center with some sort of display, two boxes in the far corners from him, a pair of chairs in front of the desk, and two beings inside it. One was a human male, ugly face even by mon-keigh standards with hard lines, a grim expression, and stupid looking hair, wearing a dark suit of some sort and pointing a handgun at him from the far side of the desk.

However, a simple glance at the other occupant told Arlas that he had found the next step. This one was far more interesting, another new species. She, and the figure was definitely female, her full body suit hugged her curves a bit too much to make her gender a question to anyone with eyes, held a pistol in one hand pointed in the eldar's direction, and her other hand was encased in one of those omni-tools. Her suit was a visually pleasing and delightful combination of black, light and dark grey fabrics, and a mostly opaque purple visor covered her face, revealing only what looked like silver eyes. Arlas smiled softly in his own helmet, having found the purple mist and silver gems. Now he just had to get her to come with him to the tower of white, encased in flames. Or the Presidium Tower, as the local memories supplied the name and even a good map of the local areas to it.

He first had to convince her to come with him of course. And standing with a sword and flamer pistol was not likely to do that. So, in a display of bravado, the eldar put the flamer pistol onto his hip, and leaned against the nearest wall. "Greetings."

Both occupants' pistols lowered slightly, and he bounced the sword on his shoulder a few times, waiting for something to occupants were clearly both waiting for the same thing, though the human was working from confusion back to rage. He resumed control of the conversation when it became apparent they weren't going to join in. "Sorry about the mess, planned to just talk with Gemling here. Then I saw the next room, and lost my temper. Slaver."

His last comment caused the dynamic of the stand off to shift, the male reaching over the desk, fast as a striking tyranid, and yanking the gemling over the desk. She yelped, unable to keep a grip on her pistol, but did managed to bring her arm with the omni-tool around to slam against his thigh. As the male shoved the muzzle against her head, Gemling finally spoke, a nice, enjoyable, rolling language that, while still crude, at least didn't grate on his ears like most human languages did. Sadly, Arlas couldn't understand a word of it, yet. {I have an overload primed, and powerful enough to fry you, traitorous slaver.}

Unfortunately for her, the male didn't seem impressed by whatever she said, and kept the pistol pressed against her head. "Fuck off asshole. You want to talk to her? Too bad, powerful people want the suit bitch dead."

Now he was in familiar territory, and Arlas knew the situation could be handled. He calmly sheathed his sword into the wall, pushing it into the metal without noticeable effort, and then pulled off his cloak and carelessly hung it from the handle. Gemling paused in her rant stare at the sword sliding into the wall, as did Slaver. The eldar couldn't make out her expression, other than the widening of what he assumed were eyes, but the human's face had drained of blood, and his wide eyes spoke of terror. Arlas permitted himself a flash of amusement, as he realized he was back in full control of the situation. He then reached over his shoulder, and pulled the long rifle out, before carefully examining it. "Now, are you going to be reasonable? I need her help and you want to live. I think we can begin negotiations. Or I can just kill you and be done."

Arlas might be an eldar, and only somewhat familiar with humans due to his long association with various renegades during his time as an Outcast, but he found he could read this human like a psy-memory. Slaver was already sweating heavily, and eying both his desk and the door. The former concerned the eldar, but he didn't let it show. "Here is the only deal you get, Slaver. You let Gemling there go, and we give you exactly one minute, while we wait in here, to run."

Another phrase from the hostage, though she didn't seem terribly upset. As far as he could tell at least, without knowing what she was saying. {I am not a piece of meat for sale, you arrogant bosh'tets. And my name is not gemling, museum escapee.}

He figured she was definitely being appreciative for the rescue, as his attention returned to the human. Slaver was thinking hard, but Arlas was not in a patient mood. He raised the long rifle, and centered the shot right on his skull. "Last chance, accept or decline."

Slaver's projected emotions were one of roiling fear, anger, contempt and arrogance. He didn't respond immediately, but after a few seconds ducked down, using Gemling as a body shield as he shifted the pistol to a more intimidating and open position, trying to emphasize the threat. "Better idea, back off or the-"

Arlas simply fired his long rifle. It was meant for distances of up to three kilometers thanks to his customizations, firing a bolt of condensed energy capable of cutting through several centimeters of the best ceramite armor the mon-keigh could come up with, though as a matter of pride most eldar would still aim for weak points in the armor. At this range, Slaver didn't have time to realize that Arlas had shifted his aim and pulled the trigger before the invisible bolt collided with the pistol. The simple materials were nowhere near resistant enough to survive the sudden heat that slammed into it, melting the pistol into a distorted lump around the man's hand. He screamed and reflexively tried to pull the jammed trigger, before foolishly releasing his hostage to grab at the gun and pry it off.

And Gemling responded like he would expect an annoyed howling banshee, turning and slamming her glowing omnitool into his head. Slaver screamed and dropped as a sharp crack echoed through the room, a discharge of electricity rippling over his form. Gemling ducked down, and yanked a small curved blade from the back of her leg, and stabbed him in the thigh. {And that was for planning to betray me, you geth lover.}

She yanked the knife out, cutting the tendon there, a move that Arlas had used many times before. He smirked as Gemling gave Slaver a kick to the head to keep him from moving, and then moved around to the other side of the desk. Arlas returned the rifle to his back, and then headed toward his sword, only to pause when he heard something clattering open and the whine of powerful gears. A quick turn revealed that the two boxes had contained turrets, which were both pointing at him, Gemling sitting behind the desk with a large, blocky weapon aimed at him as well. {I suppose I owe you a favor for keeping me from getting involved with that bosh'tet, but I am not going to be a prize for anyone.}

He simply looked at her for a second, before pulling the sword out of the wall with a mental twist and a flick of his wrist. A quick movement, and he was sitting in front of Gemling, sword back on his back, and hands resting on the desk in front of her. He needed to hurry but he also needed her help. After a moment of staring at each other, he spoke in his native language. "I know you can't understand me, but you need to follow me. I have to get somewhere with you, so you can do something. Not sure exactly what yet, but I just need your language so we can get going and learn what you must do."

Gemling started at the new language, before slowly lowering her large weapon to the desk. It still pointed at Arlas but now not directly at him. He leaned forward before she could start asking questions, and offered her a hand, pausing to lean to one side and kick Slaver in the head as the scum shifted. That got a soft snort from Gemling, and she carefully placed her hand in his. A moment of focus, and he could lift the language, though she seemed to sense something was happening, and instinctively resisted. Which immediately led to a headache, which immediately caused her shotgun to snap up at him. At least now he could understand her. "Bosh'tet. I don't know what you tried-"

Arlas replied in human common, the language he had the most familiarity with so far. "I required your language, which I now have. I am Arlas, pathfinder of the Eldar. You are?

Gemling stared at him, before stuttering a response. "Tail'Zorah nar Rayya. Of the Quarians."

He stood before she could think to ask more questions. "We need depart, quickly. Already we have lingered longer than wise. You know something, something important. What?"

Tali'Zorah just stared at him for a moment, before the soft whine of the turrets grabbed her attention. She stared at the display in front of her, before touching a few points of light on her forearm, causing the turrets to power down and return to their hiding spot. "You mean the geth data? Everyone seems to want it."

The last was accompanied by a spike of resentment, which he ignored. "We need to go, I know someone who needs that information, as soon as possible. May I hear it as we leave? If it is as important as everyone else seems to believe, I suspect that the humans will gladly promise almost anything for it."

She gave him a glare, before sighing and rubbing one arm. "Keelah. I didn't... Nevermind. Here."

She followed with all the enthusiasm of someone walking into an ambush but knowing it was the best on a long list of bad options. Since Arlas had done that a few times, he knew both the walk and feeling. She tapped her omni-tool a few times, and let the recording play as they left the club. He nodded once after he listened to it. "Yes, the commanders and captain will definitely want to hear this. Now, in fact. The humans were complaining about that attack, and this will definitely help them. It would be useful no matter when they get it, but earlier is better. Especially for you."

Arlas watched her for a moment and immediately knew exactly how old this… infant in front of him was. Her body language screamed fear, uncertainty, and doubt, she wrung her hands, something he had never seen before and found oddly amusing to watch, and she looked everywhere but at him. She was a child, with no real experience of her own to call upon, and it showed to even the most casual of glances. She still followed him as he left, but clearly more from lack of thinking of a better option or perhaps out of habit than because she had thought it the superior choice. But the important thing was that she was following.

A few steps got them out of the slaver lair, and glance showed no one was outside waiting. A few quick turns took him to one of the side passages, where Gemling spoke up. "Do we have to take the side passages? And where are you taking me?"

"Yes, and the white tower. You are needed there."

She stared at him for a moment, before shaking her head. "The white tower? Are you… sure?"

He paused, before shaking his head. "Sorry, I meant the Presidium Tower."

Her unease with the situation was a physical sensation for him, but he kept both of them moving. A few minutes later, he paused at a junction, before backing up slightly. He gestured for Gemling to stay, before flipping his hood up and activating the camo function of his cloak. He blended into the background, watching the cross passage he had just approached. A moment later, a couple blue uniformed beings sprinted by, staying in the larger passage, intent on their destination. Arlas pulled his hood down a few seconds after they passed and stopped supplying energy to the cloak.

Tali was suddenly right beside him, actually surprising him at how fast and quiet she had moved forward, and was examining the cloak with interest. "Fabric that can change to match its surroundings? But how did you cover your face, I couldn't see any of you. And how did it conceal your weapons, they are not under it."

He stepped through the corridor, keeping a quick but not fast pace. "Cameleoline cloak, it projects a distortion field as long as it has power. We need to keep moving."

Tali was silent for several more minutes, following signs to the Presidium, but after dodging another group of blue clad officers, she started asking questions again. "Why are you avoiding C-Sec? I mean other than the fact you fought your way, alone, through a club of thugs and gangsters and criminals and... Oh Keelah, what am I doing alone with you?"

That last question got earned a surge of amusement from him, though she couldn't sense it. "Getting to safety and a way to strike back at those that would make you a victim."

That seemed to disperse her fears, and she was silent for the rest of the walk to the Presidium. Which was good, as his mind was starting to itch again, which meant he needed to hurry. He looked around after stepping off the elevator to the innermost ring of the station, ignoring the nearby beings taking a second look and the stares. Their projected confusion turned to disgust or contempt when Tali stepped out, and all of them turned away, continuing whatever they were doing while Tali seemed to shrink in on herself. He finally spotted the tower, a couple minutes walk from the elevator they left.

As he walked toward the tower, he looked around. It was a wide, open space, with a visible curve, at most a kilometer to where the curve was blocked by the ceiling by his reckoning from the curve and the detail he could make out. Then he remembered the rangefinder built into the helm, and did a couple quick scans of the distance, but quickly discovered something was interfering with the targeting system. He shrugged and made a note to check later as he continued onward.

The plaza they were in had open water, and a few trees he could see, but so far he wasn't impressed by the area. It was small, carefully cultivated for appearance rather than function, and had more small dwellings and several larger structures than actual plants. He could think of at least a dozen biodomes in his home section of the craftworld larger than this area, especially since they didn't try to use the interior of the ring, and those biodomes were at least useful along with being functional and appealing. All this place could do, and barely at that, was be slightly appealing.

Once he got to the base of the tower he mentally kicked himself. Several guards were posted, most in the blue outfit of this… C-Sec group, but there were several nearby in what passed for civilian clothing, their emotions clearly marking the difference. He stared at the security checkpoint, before turning to Tali. "I did not consider the guard post. If I ask you to play the evidence, please do so as loud as you can. I will get us through, but stand clear a bit. If they are confrontational, I do not wish to chance you being injured."

Arlas watch Tali head to a nearby dwelling, which had a... He paused, turning to make sure he saw it right, and was torn between alarmed and amused at the sight of a floating, bright pink ocean predator, hanging tentacles just brushing the floor. It was slightly unnerving, but Tali simply greeted the creature, and began examining the items on the various surfaces, causing him to realize it was a mon-keigh shop. Arlas gave a mental shake, as he dismissed the latest oddity from his mind, before heading toward the tower entrance. As he approached, several officers spotted him, and stared, causing him to think only one thing. * _Well, this is going to be interesting._ *

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Jaclyn Shepard stood at ease beside Ashley and Kaidan, watching her twin from the sidelines. She had no interest in standing up on the petitioner podium like some kind of beggar, attempting to curry a favor from some lord's table. Her sister had the patience and understanding to do that. Jaclyn was watching the four security snipers and six guards she could see from her current position, more out of habit than expecting any trouble. Saren Arterius wasn't physically present, but loomed over the 'proceedings' anyway, a massive light construct that sneered enough to make her want to hunt him down even if he didn't have anything to do with the Eden Prime attack.

Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson were up on the podium, having just finished presenting the last of their hard evidence. C-Sec had had four hours to investigate the possibility of Saren being involved, and had, surprise surprise, come up with nothing solid. They could have run his public finances through their virtual intelligences, make queries on his locator beacon, and maybe even tap a couple of information brokers or their own sources for information.

But the Council had hamstrung the investigation even further, in spite of their orders to investigate the Spectre. No prioritization orders, no orders to the other Spectres to comply, no funding to assist in the investigation, and not enough time to do anything. Jaclyn knew was exactly why they had done that; because they didn't want to know if their Spectre had gone rogue. So it was probably for the best if she was down here, not required to look at Saren, or the Council, or Udina. This hearing was already done as the Council had already decided that even if Saren was dirty, it wasn't their problem and therefore they didn't have to do anything about it.

So she was already going through what she could before they were dismissed. She knew a couple information brokers that owed her a favor or two, that one shop in the wards would have an ear to the ground and might know something, C-Sec would definitely not be happy at being ordered to do something and then getting stonewalled by the same people, and maybe her twin had some local contacts. She would have dug further, but her omnitool suddenly flashed, indicating an incoming call. A glance showed her sister absently dismissing the call, so she took it more to relieve her boredom than anything else.

She raised an eyebrow as she read the sender data, indicating a C-Sec priority call, but a turian appeared on screen before she could do more. She wasn't that versed in turian facial expressions, but even she could tell this one was unhappy about something, mandibles tight against his jaw. "Sorry to bother you, ma'am. C-Sec, Sergeant Drusipanus, at the Presidium Tower entry checkpoint. We have a person here, demanding we call you, claims to be elder, sorry, Eldar Arlas, and that you asked him to meet with him."

She paused, and glanced at the Council, before moving away from the hearing. Her twin glanced over, but she gave a small movement, letting her know she was dealing with something. "Yes, send him up please. I will meet him at the elevator."

The sergeant nodded, before glancing to the side. "Right, and the quarian with him?"

She wondering why and where he had picked up a quarian before she hedged her reply. "Can I speak with Arlas?"

The turian's mandibles flicked, before the view turned to show the eldar. She glared at the eldar, before speaking, trying to not shout at him through the transmission. "Arlas, glad you could rejoin us. What is this about a quarian?"

Arlas didn't move, his voice as monotone as she remembered. "She is the entire reason I returned. You should hear what she found. Immediately. Otherwise, I would be meeting you at the space vessel."

Jaclyn sighed, before nodding. "Sergeant, send them both up, I will meet them at the elevators."

* * *

Arlas simply waited as the sergeant fumed at his omnitool, the rest of the dozen officers glaring at him and at Tali. After a moment, Arlas simply stepped around him, and into the elevator behind them, gesturing for Tali to follow. The quarian slowly followed behind, not relaxing as the guards gave her escort a suspicious glare. After she finally got in, he pushed the top most button, closing the door. Once that was closed, he reached over, and snagged both of Tali's weapons, hiding them under his cloak. Tali wordlessly protested his actions and glared at him until he spoke. "Would you rather be bringing in a weapon?"

That got her to stop glaring, before she reluctantly shook her head, though now her hands were strangling each other again. Her actions caused him to feel a surge of amusement, as no eldar child would be so undisciplined as to display so much physical evidence of their emotions in public. So after securing her weapons, and ensuring his own were at least unobtrusive, he relaxed, turning back to the door. "Just remember what I said, about the recording, and relax."

The quarian glared at him, but didn't reply. After more than three minutes in the elevator, they were finally nearing the top of the structure, but something was off. He could sense several beings waiting at the exit of the elevator, five of them from the different emotions he could feel, but one felt different. The other four were mostly bored, with varying other emotions mixed in, but the odd one felt calm and focused, like the guard was expecting a fight soon. He could also, dimly, sense a mind that felt like one of the human twins approaching, but it would take a short while, and the edgy guard was much closer.

He spent the last moment in the elevator deliberating his actions before he stepped over and gently pushed Gemling into cover, over her protests, right before the doors opened. Arlas immediately stepped out, but kept in the way of the door. "Stay there a moment, Tali. Might have trouble."

She immediately froze, silenced by the suggestion of trouble, allowing him to observe the guards. They were slightly spread out, and four, two asari and salarians, were staring at him as he looked around, caution and slight confusion now dominating their emotions, but the focused turian guard was even moreso now, and approaching. A large specimen, for a turian, Arlas actually found someone that stood almost equal to him in height. It was an amusing experience, because as soon as the turian realized that he didn't tower over Arlas, he faltered slightly.

Nevertheless, the guard rallied himself. "Halt, you aren't supposed to be here."

The guard drew a weapon from his back, which unfolded into a large block, unimpressive in its appearance, all hard lines and angles, lacking any finesse or grace about it. His armor was massive and heavy, or at least he seemed to think it was, trying to loom over the eldar. Considering that the eldar had fought two and a half to three meter tall space marines, as well as ork warbosses and tyranid siege and leader bioforms that were even bigger, Arlas wasn't impressed. He simply stared at the turian, before turning to stare at the stairs leading up and deeper into the uppermost floor of the tower. The human was closer, but apparently taking her time, a bit more than halfway to him.

Arlas turned back to the guard, realizing he would have to deal with the guard. "Commander Shepard is approaching to escort us. Your presence is not required."

"I don't care if you claim the entire Council on their way. They haven't called it in, you don't get in. Get back in the elevator, **now**."

Arlas didn't move, staring at the lasted for about ten seconds, before the guard suddenly jumped backwards, and shouted loudly. "Stand down, right now!"

Arlas' twitched unconsciously at the sudden movement and shout, ancient instincts reacting before he could suppress them. The guard saw him twitch, and opened fire with a feeling of grim satisfaction.

For the eldar, it was slightly surreal, the sudden burst of light streaking toward his chest from the barrel, the other guards suddenly reaching for their own weapons, or bringing up omnitools to point at him, but they were slow, surprised. His armor's psychic field caught the first shot, turning it aside, and he reached for his sword and flamer pistol, twisting to the side as a second and third shot screamed past. He lunged forward, the turian's emotion going from a trace of satisfaction to sudden shock and fear as Arlas closed the distance faster than he anticipated. The witchblade sang as it slid from its sheath, the sixth shot glancing off his shoulder armor. He ignored a shout from somewhere behind him, already focused on the opponent before him.

When Arlas was close enough, he struck. The turian screamed as he lost both hands, the rifle firing twice as it fell to the ground, but before Arlas could strike again, he felt something interact with his armor's protective field, and then bypass it. He didn't even have time to try to dodge before it hit him right in the back. He staggered a couple of steps, before whirling about to face the new threat, and found a squad of fourteen individuals aiming at him.

He glanced at the turian on the ground before flicking clean and then sheathing the sword, and returning the flamer pistol to his hip. The turian in charge, with pale blue facial markings in a dark red and brown set of armor adorned with a blue stripe nodded, before looking at the guards. "Stand down! Officer Yelji, stabilize Constable Gorculus, and then get me his omnitool before you get him to medical. Officer Adacolus, Gratrian, and Aganus, secure that suspect. Officer Vakarian, good shot."

As the turian was issuing orders, Commander Shepard finally bothered to arrive, moving at a fast walk. She looked around, saw Arlas standing to one side, a quarian in the elevator, a turian C-Sec on the ground missing both hands being tended by a Salarian, and a full twelve man C-Sec Special Response Squad aiming at the Eldar. She turned to the turian that had been talking, and greeted him. "Executor Pallin, what is going on?"

The turian looked at Shepard, and while he kept his tone and mandibles tightly controlled, Arlas could feel annoyance oozing from him. "Commander. Dealing with someone that attacked one of my officers. He is lucky I was talking with the squad leader, otherwise the Response Team would have killed him."

The human gave Arlas a glare as he snorted out loud, before turning to the Executor. "Sir, I was coming down to see what he wanted. The checkpoint at the entrance called me five minutes ago about him. He is also the new species the Council issued the alert on a few hours ago."

Arlas watched everyone turn to stare at her, and as they turned back to him, he reached up, undid the right shoulder clasp, and theatrically flung the cape back, so that it only covered the left side of his form. He gave the Executor an elegant tenth of a bow, moving as gracefully and smoothly as he could, before straightening up. He then spoke in Eldar. {I am pleased to see your security so ready to defend their leaders, but perhaps they should exercise restraint before lethal force. I am Arlas, Pathfinder of the Eldar people residing on Craftworld Ae'Imedra. Now, would you kindly quit screwing around, before we miss whatever is going on at the other end? That is the entire reason I bothered coming off the ship.}

He waited a moment, as everyone gaped at the new language, before one of the asari leaned over to murmur to her partner in her native tongue. "I don't know what she said, but I REALLY wouldn't mind listening to it again."

The executor stared at the newcomer for a moment, his eyes moving to the large rifle protruding from over his shoulder, back to the helmet, before sighing and rubbing his eyes. "Fine, but no weapons."

Arlas smirked behind his helmet, before turning to the elevator. "Tali, you may exit the vertical conveyance presently."

The quarian had barely stepped out of the elevator before freezing as several turians stared at her. Shepard looked at the quarian, and then back to the eldar, no longer as amused. "Arlas, explain."

Instead of answering, he shrugged. "Tali, please activate your audio recording, at your leisure."

That got everyone's attention turned to him, giving the skittish young woman a chance to focus on her omnitool. A second later, everyone's attention snapped back to her as a flanged voice boomed from the speakers, bombast and arrogant in its presentation. "Loyal g-geth followers. The Sovereign has revealed the nex-ext step of our grand endeavor. And it *static*-he mos-ssssss-t important mission yet. The humans have recovered a working Pr-*static* Beacon on Eden Prime. We can not allow it to fall into their hands, or *screech*-cil's, without jeopardizing our ultimate design."

Shepard had frozen in place, her emotions a mix of shock and disbelief, that was slowly giving way to vicious pleasure with a touch of suspicion as she listened to the recording. Most of the turians were simply confused, but one turian, the one the executor had named Vakarian, was listening with slowly growing but equal measures of both anger and amusement. The guard on the ground was listening with rage and frustration. The executor was simply getting angrier and angrier with each word. Then a second, smoother voice, almost sultry in its tone, cut in. "This mission can *static*-ill not, must not fail. For if you do, we fail *static* the location of the Con-Conduit, and fail to aid the Reapers in their return."

The first voice returned, this time more commanding, with an undertone of threat even he could hear. "But the Sovereign has foreseen their pathetic *static* resistance, and with my assistance, has divined an assault to rip them apart. Assault plan-plan-plans, ti-ti-ti-ti-timers, and maps ha-ha-ha-*static* uploaded to your servers, and they must be followed to the smallest detail. While the Sovereign can not aid our attack directly, indirectly it will *static* victory. Do not fail me, and do not fail the Reapers."

Pallin was the first to speak as the recording ended. "Quarian, I am Executor Pallin of C-Sec. Is there anything else? And where did you get that?"

She nodded, before tapping away. "Yes, I got the maps with markers and some of the timers. Sending a copy. I got it from a geth unit that me and several others disabled in the Crescent Nebula. We were heading to Illium to begin our Pilgrimages, when I spotted a few reports mentioning unknown ships being sighted in a nearby system. The descriptions strongly resembled what my people knew were geth ships, so I convinced the crew to go investigate. Eventually we ended up in the Ondeste system, on Maisuth, where me and the crew found an isolated geth unit."

At this point, one of the turians spoke, scorn in its flanged voice. "And it just gave you the data?"

One of the other officers elbowed him, but Tali just glared. "No, it took two of us to lock down its cyberwarfare abilities, another to prevent it from calling for help, three to electronically disable the chassis to allow physical access to its drives, and then myself and a friend to actually hack in and get it, while it was deleting everything. While we got a lot of it, there was a lot we didn't. We headed back to the ship when we got ambushed by a mercenary group. Eventually, the crew and my friends were all dead, and I ended up on the Citadel where I lost the mercs."

She unconsciously touched her side, and flinched slightly. Arlas frowned, having not been aware she was wounded. A quick glance showed Vakarian and Pallin hunched over the latter's omnitool, and two of the other officers were subtly pointing their omnitool's at the quarian. The wounded turian had left, as had both of his amputated hands with two guards helping him. Another of the Special Response Team had moved to replace the maimed guard. Arlas smirked, before wandering toward Shepard, only for six of the squad to turn to him. One, a short turian with no head fringes, spoke. "Hold it, sir. You can't go deeper yet. Orders."

Before he could respond, Pallin abruptly swore, even as Vakarian made a deep rasping noise. "No, he comes. This is important, and the Council needs to hear this, now. Garrus, you have that extra information?"

The turian beside him spread his mandibles wide, and nodded. "Done before I joined you, sir. And very interesting, I must thank Saren for giving me the idea to check. I am almost embarrassed I didn't think of it earlier."

Pallin spared the time to glare at the other officer, before heading toward the far end. "Quicktime people. The..."

Arlas supplied the answer before the executor could ask. "Eldar is my species. I am commonly called Arlas."

That earned him a flat stare, but the eldar was wearing a helmet, so Pallin didn't glare long. "Ambassador Arlas can come, but please do not reach for a weapon. The snipers are likely twitchy. Walk beside me please. You too Shepard. The rest of you, escort the witness to the station, and have her wait in a secure room, and see to her needs."

In a lower voice, he spoke to the nine officers. "And if anything happens to her and you aren't dead to give yourselves an excuse, I am putting you on far-ward patrol for the rest of your spirits be damned careers, short though they will be."

Arlas watched with interest as all of the remaining officers flinched at that threat before saluting and leaving with the nervous quarian. She gave him a glance, but followed behind them at his nod. He then turned, and stepped between the human and executor, with officer Vakarian following behind the trio. * _Time to ruin someone's day_ ,* he thought, basking in the almost childish pleasure of the human and the grim anger of the turians.

 _Post Story A/N - Srsly, go throw a vote in the poll on my profile. And leave a review. And favorite and follow. And support your local sheriff. And stuff._


	8. Of Councils and Spectres

**Chapter 8 - Of Councils and Spectres**

 **A/N** \- _Nothing significant. Other than another shout out to every reviewer, follower, favoriter, and my beta. Also a reminder, drop a review, they help me stay motivated._

' _For Tau.' - Tau battle cry._

The small group didn't take long to get to the far end of the Council Chamber, moving far faster to it than Shepard had away from it. Arlas didn't speculate, instead putting his mind into a passive trance, letting history happen. He had learned it during his stint as a Warlock, though he had used it more to observe everything all at once, than for meditation and clearing his thoughts. Now, he just took the scene in. Three individuals, clearly impressed with themselves, stood at the far end, the asari in the center, the turian on the right, and a hooded salarian took up the last spot on the left, on an elevated platform letting them look down upon the people they were deigning to acknowledge. Three humans were on the lower platform in front of them, separated by a small hole in the floor, and Arlas snorted in amusement at the symbolism in it. Separate and above the person on the podium, out of reach and passing sentence like some tribal divine. It was enough to instantly make him dislike all three of these… Councilors.

He turned his attention to the lower platform, and recognized two of the humans there, the other Shepard and the Captain, but made no attempt to learn anything about the third human after briefly tasting his emotions; greed, ambition, avarice, a plotter and schemer, and unworthy of any more attention than Arlas deigned to give him unless it was to eliminate or manipulate him. The human twins at least had interesting minds and abilities, and the captain at least tried his best during the meeting he had had with Arlas. This human felt like the worst of his own race, while attempting the power plays and coups that Arlas' fallen kin would but without the redeeming feature of being successful.

To the side were the other two humans that had fought beside him against the machines and were as interesting as they had been before, not at all. But the most… unusual feature was the unnecessarily large light construct of a turian. He had little idea how big the turian it was portraying actually was, but the need to made his image that large spoke of… overcompensation. All and all, it was nothing like what he expected, something more subtle, elegant, and refined, while still maintaining a disciplined and minimalist lifestyle. This was more like the decadent and hedonistic culture that Arlas' people had devolved into right before the Fall.

Rather than wait for someone to direct him to a position, he moved over to the two humans, and stood near them, but clearly apart, while he simply observed.

The human and two turians moved up to the lower platform, causing the three leaders to look past the humans on the platform. The human who had been speaking, the third one that Arlas didn't care to learn anything else about, huffed angrily but a few quick words caused him to relax and turn back to the leaders. "Council, Executor Pallin has new evidence, and has brought it for your review. I will allow him to present it."

Even Arlas was capable of reading the glare every other human gave the one he was ignoring, complete and utter contempt. The asari shifted, glancing surreptitiously at the other two, before nodding. "Very well, Executor Pallin, you may present your newest evidence."

The turian nodded. "Thank you, Councilor Tevos. The first is a listing of all the times Spectre Arterius used his Spectre authorization codes in the last two months."

Another light construct sprang into existence in the gap between the two platforms, showing a map of the universe, before zooming in on a specific portion of it. Arlas didn't know anything about this part of the investigation, and listened intently, if only to relieve his boredom. "They are propagating in chronological order, and have time stamps."

The turian light construct huffed in annoyance through some form of communicator also worked into the display. When he finally spoke, Arlas suddenly understood why Shepard had been so gleeful about earlier about thwarting him. "Starts in the Shrike Abyssal system, where I was finishing an investigation into mercenaries potentially stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Then moves over to the other edge of Citadel Space, where I was tracking pirates that were smuggling large numbers of Prothean relics, presumably to the Batarians, through the Hawking Eta system. What of it, Executor?"

The turian present simply continued as if the Spectre, whatever that was, hadn't spoken. "While the timeline does match the claims, it was what he was doing WITH the codes that was of more interest. Further investigation found that, among other things, he authorized at least four listening posts, two jointly manned by all the citadel species, one by the turians and another by the salarian STG, to cease monitoring for an hour's time. Two in the Hawking Eta system, and two more in the Horse Head nebula."

This time the systems were shown, and all four of the listening posts blinked red, including time stamps. It was narrow, but there was an overlap of about a third an hour between each system going down and the previous going up. Arlas frowned, noting it was more than enough time for a tight cluster of ships to pass through without being detected. Saren simply scoffed. "Of course I took them down. I set up a false flag operation, and demonstrated that I could disable the listening stations to get a large number of ships through. They sent a single smuggler through to test it, and I forwarded the ship information to the STG. I have already set up the clean up operation with Blackwatch and STG, I don't even have to show up. They just send the coded message to my dupe, they rush a large number of ships through, and the smugglers run right into a blockade waiting for them."

The turian on the upper platform spoke. "Primarch Fedorian has already cleared the operation, Pallin, and is liaising with STG as we speak for it. While disabling the listening posts, for any reason, is concerning, the chance to shut down this ring, as well as determine where these smugglers are operating is too good to pass up."

Executor Pallin simply nodded before pulling out his omni tool and tapping it several times, nodding along as the turian Spectre and then councilor spoke. "Council Sparatus, esteemed Councilors, ...Saren, the following evidence has already been checked for both its authenticity, and accuracy. The VIs and techs that did the checks say the matches are extremely close, though some data fragmentation and degradation has made establishing perfect matches impossible."

Pallin pushed the button, and Saren's voice boomed from his omnitool. "Loyal g-geth followers. The Sovereign has revealed the nex-ext step of our grand endeavor. And it *static*he mos-ssssss-t important mission yet. The humans have recovered a working Pr*static* Beacon on Eden Prime. We can not allow it to fall into their hands, or *screech*cil's, without jeopardizing our ultimate design."

The sultry voice joined his, extolling the unseen audience further. "This mission can *static*ill not, must not fail. For if you do, we fail *static* discover the location of the Con-Conduit, and fail to aid the Reapers in their return."

Saren's expression had frozen, shocked and unable to think of a retort or excuse as his own voice continued to condemn him. "But the Sovereign has foreseen their pathetic *static* at resistance, and with my assistance, has divined an assault to rip them apart. Assault plan-plan-plans, ti-ti-ti-ti-timers, and maps ha-ha-ha*static* uploaded to your servers, and they must be followed to the smallest detail. While the Sovereign can not aid our attack directly, indirectly it will *static* victory. Do not fail me, and do not fail the Reapers."

The light construct between the two platforms switched from the galaxy map to show two versions of the same map. One was labeled evidence, the other Alliance After Action Report. Both maps showed the same basic fight, though the Alliance map had several large holes in it where the geth had simply overrun and killed everyone. In the quiet of the hall, Arlas couldn't resist his impish sense of amusement, as he glanced at the turian light construct. "I suspect you did not expect someone to rescue the witness and her data from your slaver and criminal friends."

He spoke in flawless turian, though he lacked the flanged voice, causing everyone else's attention to shift to him. The turian councilor, Arlas recalled the executor calling him Sparatus, stared at him for a moment. "And who is that?"

The real and light construct turian were both staring at him, the former in confusion and suspicion, the other in rage and contempt. He simply bowed slightly to the towering construct of light, holding it for a mocking length of time, or so he hoped. "Pathfinder Arlas, of the Eldar. And I hope to meet you as quickly as possible, Mr. Arterius."

He turned back to the Council, ignoring the towering construct of light as he spoke in flawless human. "I am present as an observer of my species, not a representative. I have a lack of inclination in remaining on this facility. I am simply to observe and report my impressions to my species when I encounter my assembly once more. Please, continue your proceedings."

He watched the three leaders on their platform exchange a look, before the other two looked to the turian. Sparatus looked up at the figure, his talons gripping the podium. "Very well, Saren, your Spectre status is hereby suspended until we complete a full investigation into…"

The turian trailed off, as Saren reached out of the projector's field of view, and a second later he vanished, the sneer on his face the last thing to vanish. The turian at the podium had tensed up completely, clearly enraged, before he got his voice back. "Saren Arterius has refused to submit to the authority of the Council. I move that we immediately strip him of his Spectre status. I will notify Turian Hierarchy forces about him being wanted for suspicion of assault of allied colonies."

The asari nodded but the salarian spoke first. "Agreed, will also inform STG of his status. Begin freezing his assets. Already starting."

The human that Arlas had already decided that he didn't like stepped forward, wildly waving one arm. "That isn't good enough! You saw his ship, and his pet geth. Send in your fleets. Scour the Attican Traverse for him."

The turian council stared down at the human. "You do not get to make demands here, Ambassador Udina."

The asari quickly raised her hand, silencing both sides. "A fleet can not find one person, Ambassador, nor can we send the fleet in, without igniting a much worse war that would only make it even easier for him to move around in."

Udina huffed. "Then send your Spectres after him. Surely a handful could easily apprehend him."

This time the salarian shook his head. "Spectres, in general, work alone, Ambassador, you should already know that. And the ones that would have the best skills for a chance of catching him, alone or in groups, are the very Spectres Saren himself mentored. No, a different solution is required."

Arlas couldn't help but notice the emotions of the three leaders, despite the tone of their voices, seemed almost… bored and unfocused. Like they were not surprised, and were merely waiting on something, like actors in a play. Then the Shepard twin on the lower platform glanced at her twin sister, and Arlas felt a spike of amusement from the asari, quickly suppressed, as Joannis turned back to the Council and stepped forward. "Then send myself and my twin after him. We were already being evaluated for the Spectres, giving the ambassador what he wants, and you don't have to send in your fleets to get Saren, giving you what you want. Everyone wins."

The turian started to make an angry rebuttal, but a soft word from the asari pulled him and the salarian away from the podiums. A soft conversation, too soft for even Arlas to hear, followed, before eventually all three returned to their podiums. All three pushed a button, and looked to the asari. "Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, Lieutenant Commander Jaclyn Shepard; step forward."

Udina and the captain quickly vacated the platform as Jaclyn stepped forward, leaving the twin humans on it, side by side. Arlas looked around as the murmur of conversation swelled and then subsided, like the water just before a great tidal wave. The balconies were packed with members nearly two dozen different races, not just the dozen he had already encountered. He turned back as the Councilors began speaking again.

The asari started, her voicing ringing through the room without actually raising her voice, good acoustics and hidden voice casters helping significantly. "It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the rights and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch of the Citadel."

The salarian councillor was next. "Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle; those whose actions lift them above the rank and file."

The asari councillor gave the human twins a benevolent smile, before continuing. "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol, the embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

The turian was short, gruff and to the point, clearly not pleased with the outcome. "Spectres bear a great burden. Both our first and last line of defence, the safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

Both of the human females stood tall and proud, before both nodding at the exact same time. Joannis chose to talk for the both of them. "Thank you Councilors, for your trust. From both of us."

The councilors barely twitched in acknowledgement of the human, the salarian giving them their orders. "We are sending you into the Attican Traverse, after Saren. Intelligence will be forwarded to you as it becomes available."

This time Jaclyn spoke. "He is as good as caught."

The turian simply flicked his mandibles. "You will be assigned an observer, since your mentor was hospitalized before he could conclude his assignment. Try to keep this one intact. They will simply be to observe, not do your job for you."

The councilors left by a side door, letting the humans gather together. Before he could leave, however, the Executor came over and cleared his throat. Or at least, Arlas hoped that was what he was doing. It sounded like someone dragging a metal plate through gravel. He sighed inside his helmet, before turning his head slightly to the turian behind him now, and spoke in turian. "What can I do for you, executor?"

The executor's mandibles fluttered, causing Arlas' hand under the cloak to twitch toward the flamer pistol. Those mandibles reminded him too much of the larger combat bioforms of the tyranids. "The Councilors have extended an invitation, and wish to meet with you."

The eldar refrained from repeating his earlier action, and simply considered the situation. "I recall that I claimed I had neither orders nor desire to meet with them."

After a moment, with the executor simply waiting for an answer, and the four nearby guards getting twitchy, he gave in. "As long as they understand I can not, and will not, be separated from my weapons. This is for the safety of the protection detail. If this is not allowed, I will not meet with them."

The executor stared, before shaking his head. "The request is most irregular. I give you my word that they will be returned in the same condition you leave them in."

"That is not the core issue. The crux of the issue is that the weapons are very sensitive to tampering, and if your people get too close, I lose a weapon, and you will have a large number of severely injured, burned, perforated, or dead individuals. If I am nearby, that will not happen."

He was not lying, not really, but he was exaggerating, slightly. The power field that kept the psychoreactive wraithbone intact would collapse if a life form without training or sufficient talent tried to grab it, resulting in it returning to its natural state, also known as pure warp energy. This tended to be unhealthy for anyone nearby. Of course, he **could** maintain the field from a distance, but best to not let anyone else know that. The eldar's best defense lay in not needing one, then not being the focus of ire, and only as a last resort did they fall to force of arms.

The executor was clearly not impressed, but also clearly not sure on what he was allowed to do. The turian stepped away after a moment, and started talking into his omnitool. Atlas took a quick glance around at several of the guards from earlier nearby at various distances, clearly keeping an eye on the armed outsider. Though they were also keeping others from bothering him, as they intercepted several asari as they moved toward him, asking them to go around. Movement showed the executor coming back towards him, though he didn't speak until close enough to keep the slowly gathering crowd from hearing too much. "They have agreed to your request to keep your weapons, but will be meeting you in a partitioned off chamber. If you will follow me, sir?"

Arlas simply dipped his head, and followed beside the executor, and decided to learn a bit more about his guide. The guards moved with them, keeping the area clear. "Forgive my curiosity if it becomes impertinent, but what are the duties of an executor?"

Pallin glanced at him, as if surprised to hear someone speaking turian without any expressed vocal emotions, but answered anyways. "There is only one executor, the head of Citadel Security Services, or C-Sec for short. As an outsider, we are aware that you don't know anything about our organization, but the next time you assault one of my officers, they will respond with appropriate force. They typically are in grey armor with dark blue stripes. If someone yells for you to stop, please comply."

"Was that what they were demanding? I was incapable of communicating and understanding them when I came into physical contact with them. I do wish to apologize for the pain I caused, however. I needed the languages. But if you are in charge of this Citadel Security Services, that would mean you are approximately equivalent to an exarch then. Interesting. How many follow the path of C-Sec?"

Pallin's emotions indicated pure disbelief that someone speaking fluent turian hadn't known the language two hours earlier, but didn't show any signs of it other than a tightening of the muscles that controlled his mandibles. "A little more than two hundred thousand officers at last count."

That actually got a smile from Arlas. It was a small shrine then, or a major shrine on one of the smallest craftworlds. Even the smallest warrior path on his craftworld, with a 'mere' fifty million eldar, the Fire Dragons, still had a one hundred and fifty thousand active followers. And with eleven active paths, twelve if the path of the outcasts counted, they could put a war host of nearly four million on the ground to deter hostilities immediately, and another eight if given time to respond. They used to have one more shrine, and could have had another, but the shining spear path never really caught on, and the entire path of the Shadow Spectres had left with the Lost Host. "A respectable path, then. Though that results, technically, in my rank being equivalent yours."

Amongst the eldar, it was poor form to point out that the path of the outcast had their own exarchs, and a pathfinder, or outcast exarch, pointing it out usually got a very brief, instructive, and painful lesson in humility. Mostly due to the outcasts being among the least trained in close combat, while all the other paths at least got some sort of training in it. Though the outcasts were also the only exarchs that weren't consumed by their paths. Or at least, not all of them were. He wasn't, or at least he kept telling himself that. _*Next decade, he would return to the Craftworld and try another path, next decade.*_

He was probably stuck in it, but it was a nice delusion, pretending he wasn't addicted to the thrill of exploration. Pallin, however, wasn't as amused at the remark as Arlas was, and simply made a noise. He had no idea what it meant, but he suspected the executor was surprised. Before they could resume the conversation, however, the doors opened, indicating they had arrived. "This way, sir."

The turian was being a bit more deliberate now, though why Arlas wasn't sure. They didn't travel far, only past a couple doors before the executor opened one for him. "This is your entrance, the Council will be meeting you in a moment."

Arlas was tempted to ask how long that was, but Pallin stepped away, letting the door shut before he could ask. He shrugged, and looked around, not concerned about being in a relatively small and enclosed space like most outcasts would. Being a sniper for any length of time tended to make one edgy in small spaces. A fair sized table was set in the center of the room, a handful of chairs around one side of it. One wall was different from the others, noticeably so, while another, directly opposite that one, was only slightly different, and barely noticeable at that. Remembering the displays that had been nearly everywhere on the station, he smirked, and moved one of the chairs to put it on the side that let him sit facing the door.

Done with getting comfortable, he pulled his flamer pistol off his hip, and carefully started cleaning the outside of the weapon, though he wouldn't take it apart to finish the cleaning until back on his Raider.

* * *

On the other side of the tower, watching through the various cameras and sensors set in the room, the three Councilors observed the supposed member of a new alien race. They were not the only ones, as at least two rooms full of salarian STG, one room of turian Blackwatch, and a room of asari commandos also watched the video and sensor feeds, and those were just the teams the councilors officially acknowledged. All the groups also had various security footage of the alien as they moved through the Citadel, and of the unknown's rampage through Chora's Den, which was being reviewed quite intensely at the same time.

So far, the Councilor's reactions to the newcomer were… mixed.

Sparatus was the first to voice his opinion, and it didn't surprise Tevos in the least. Completely uninterested in diplomacy, the turian was the blunt instrument of the Council, and didn't even try to hide it. "Are we even sure it is a new species? For all I have seen, it could just be an unusually tall human actor with gene mods in a fake suit of armor."

Valern, the salarian Councilor, was far more cautious in his tone, but she could detect his interest in just how hard he was watching the feeds, and how his own dual omnitools were replaying the fight in Chora's Den for the tenth time since they had arrived. He was the scalpel of the Council, and a former STG scientist. "Tall for human, but too light for size if male. Wait, assuming mammal base, might not be, hmm, need more data. Either way, armor and weapons do not match any known configurations of known human weapons, or any species for that matter. Also, despite several cameras, including two hidden C-Sec ones, inside Chora's Den, still didn't actually capture on video what he used to kill guards with. No signs of mass accelerator slugs, no explosive residue, and yet bodies still erupted in fountain of gore. Suspect the large weapon on back is laser based."

That got Sparatus' attention faster than almost any other comment would have. A weapon system able to completely ignore the standard defenses his people relied on, fast as light, single person portable, and not in his people's hands? Tevos smothered the thought before it got any further, but weapon research and development were still very much a dead end when it came to actual laser weapons. "An actual, functioning laser weapon? Well, nevermind, I suggest-"

Tevos cut that comment off with as much decorum as she could. She was the face, wisdom and elegance of the Council, and wasn't going to stand for his normal blundering today. "Sparatus, if the next phrase out of your mouth is a suggestion to confiscate her weapon, desist immediately. We are not going to start a war with a species we know nothing about."

Sparatus paused, and then opened his mouth again, though she cut him off with a glare, letting her decorum slip slightly to show she was deadly serious. "If that is a suggestion to 'accidentally' kill her and then claim she never arrived when her people arrive, I will bar you from talking to her at all."

Valern saved Sparatus from digging his sinkhole any deeper. "According to report from humans, subject is male, rank pathfinder, and not ambassador, but forward scout. Executor Pallin reported that subject claimed to have rank roughly similar to his own. And the humans also shared video that showed him having blasted a hole through a spaceport retaining wall, with the weapon on his back. Judging from video, that weapon is plasma based. Fighting such an individual, on the Citadel, in the Presidium Tower, would be… catastrophic. Also capable of teleporting, as shown several times by our own security cameras."

That speech made Sparatus snort, his bravado quickly returning. "Please, our techs can't detect any element zero on him or his tech, and the humans reported the same. And if we can't do any of that, I doubt a primitive without eezo could have figured it. It is just the humans trying to improve the situation further."

Tevos sighed, and gave the turian a disapproving look, which he ignored as he usually did. "We don't know enough to pass any sort of judgement. Or at least, not one based on facts instead of ego. And until we actually meet with him, it will remain that way."

Sparatus gave that shrug and clicking noise that she had come to detest in her decade of working with him, which meant he had heard her, but was not going to follow her lead. She understood why he thought the way he did, even if she thought it was, at best, a mistake, especially in situations like this one, where caution and delicate diplomacy would easily win, not charging in like a bull to stand above this eldar with a gun to his head. She had seen what he had done to one of their guards in the Tower, and the video from Eden Prime painted a similar picture. This person was clearly one of their better operatives, likely doing exactly what he claimed, looking around to see what was out in the galaxy before reporting back to his people.

What she did not believe was that he was alone. No one was that good, operating alone and significant sections of the galaxy away from assistance with the 'hope' of finding something friendly. Still, they had to talk to find out if any of their suspicions were correct. Though beyond finding out everything, she had no idea what Valern was plotting. So instead, she took her seat, center in the large, open, minimally but stylishly furnished room, with the sensor screens and aides that would be monitoring them and assisting off to one side, where the cameras wouldn't see them.

The eldar was sitting to one side, so they got a view of his cloak covered side, and the armor that covered his head. Smooth, with three glowing red optics, one larger and set to one side of the helm, and the darker colors used made him seem very imposing. In a flash of insight, she realized the armor was as much for defense as it was a weapon against the mind. However, she was the among the most skilled and was definitely the most powerful diplomat in the galaxy, and took a second to remind herself, before smiling at the cameras. "Greetings, Pathfinder Arlas. I thank you for agreeing to meet with us, despite your protests of not being a diplomat. I am Councilor Tevos, and to my left is Councilor Valern, and my right is Councilor Sparatus. We wish to officially welcome you and your people to the greater galactic community, and hope to have many years of peaceful and productive exchanges."

Arlas simply looked at the camera, his helmet preventing her from seeing his expression, but after a moment he glanced at Valern and then Sparatus, before looking at the wall behind him, to his right, before turning back to the camera. "You already have my identity, as well as my purpose for wandering through your civilization, such as it is. Why am I present here, at this meeting?"

Tevos blinked at this outsider, privately incensed at his insult, 'such as it was' indeed. His monotone did nothing to reduce the insult he had just delivered, and she found herself agreeing with Sparatus for a change. "We were hoping to learn about your people, your culture, your civilization. Such as it is, to use your turn of phrase. After all, if we are to open diplomatic talks with actual diplomats,we should know enough to avoid giving offenses or going to war."

The eldar didn't move, simply staring at her on the screen. "That will be for the Farseers to decide. My purpose out here, among you, is to observe the status of the local situation, and report back to the Farseer Council. If I survive. That is all I am here to do, and exceeding my orders was strongly discouraged."

Tevos heard Sparatus softly growling under his breath, and quickly realized that the meeting was likely to get unpleasant, especially if the 'guest' didn't wish to share. Sparatus was trying to learn what he could of the newcomers so they could be properly dealt with should they try anything. And after nearly a decade on the Council, he had become used to, and even expected, to be obeyed.

Yes, this meeting was likely to get very unpleasant before it ended.

* * *

Arlas stepped out of the C-Sec elevator, and glared at the six guards and the human waiting for him. The talks with the council had been dragging on, all three blatantly transparent in their attempts to pry information to use against his people out of him. So he had gotten bored and simply left, ignoring the blustering threats of the turian. When the guards had tried to stop him, he had simply used his jump generator to warp jump out of the tower and then freely fall, or float depending on one's perspective, out of the tower, jumping to correct his fall so he didn't miss the slowly rotating station.

He stepped off the elevator, and looked over the guards. Two of each of the races he had met in the tower, though the human was projecting enough arrogance to match the station in size if it was a physical thing. Arlas paused, and examined the human, wondering where he had seen him before. White and pale brown robes, black hair in a stupid style, and a permanent sneer on his cragged face, Arlas suddenly remembered him, the human at the hearing, ambassador… someone or other. After a second of consideration, he simply jumped past the arrogant sycophant, landing in the passage behind the pilot. Ignoring the cries of shock from the mon-keigh, he stalked down the passage, heading for the stairs that would lead to the elevator. He wanted to rest in his vessel for a bit, the mon-keighs' thoughts were loud, and he was exhausted from dealing with the juveniles that pretended to be their leaders. He refused to think they were the actual leaders, their machinations were too transparent for them to be truly in charge.

Sadly for him, he only made it down the stairs before literally running into the Shepard twins. He mentally cursed himself for not paying attention, and took a half step back, opening up distance. He didn't speak; they had been looking for him, so they could start the conversation.

They stared at him for a few seconds, before the second, slimmer, smaller one spoke. Jaclyn by her emotions, that one's emotions seemed to roil more than the others. "You are the last one. Took you long enough."

The other Shepard rolled her eyes, before taking over. "We are guessing that, since you are here, you have finished with the Council, and will stand by your statement that you wish to stay aboard?"

The eldar simply nodded, wondering what they were playing at, before expanding his mind a bit. He could feel several crew nearby, but there were two in the room he didn't recognize, both rigid and highly structured. Turians if he had to guess, but one was lightning fast and flexible despite their rigidity, while the other was slow and cautious, but capable of sudden, startling leaps. He paused, considering his thoughts, and realized that translating mental tastes to actual words didn't really work well.

He gave himself a mental shake, as he realized his thoughts were wandering, and decided to get some actual sleep instead of just meditating. "Correct. The sooner we leave, the better. There was someone waiting for myself when I was returning to the vessel, all ego and arrogance. Human male, wearing brown and white. Same one from the proceedings chamber. I decided resting was more important, and went around."

That got a burst of amusement from the second Shepard, before Joannis nodded. "Alright. You said you were tired, are you up to putting it off for a half hour or so? The specialists we recruited are meeting each other in the communication room."

Arlas allowed himself an audible sigh, before speaking. "I will be there. I assume you would prefer if I did not attend in full battle armor if possible?"

He smirked as the simple question made both women start and turn, clearly not expecting it. He continued. "After all, if the others are to rely upon myself in battle, being familiar with the person under the armor will facilitate the trust required."

The twins quickly got over their shock, and Joannis nodded. "Yes please. Though also please wear something over your body suit. Apparently you were quite distracting the last time you paraded through the ship."

 _A/N - the usual author requests go here. Read, review, favorite, follow, poll on profile, enjoy, and stuff._


	9. Xenos, Mon-Keigh and Hostiles, Oh My!

**Chapter 9 - Xenos, Mon-Keigh and Hostiles, Oh My!**

 _A/N - ...Why is there no specific details on anything I look for? *sigh* For story purposes, going to say geth colossi are anywhere from 10 meters to 15 meters tall, from the end of their toes to the tip of their nose. Or camera/pulse cannon things. Whatever. Armatures are from 4 to 7 meters tall._

 _Also, I thank all the readers, for being amused at my mental exercise here, giving me 150 followers, and a minimum viewer count of 40 for the last month, and a minimum page view count of 100 for almost a month._

 _And I don't apologize for the ending, the scene required, nay, DEMANDED IT! Also..._

' _Milk for the KHORNE FLAKES!' - Every non-chaos player after the most common chaos battle cries._

Arlas finished changing out of his armor, and put on one of the tabards a warrior of a path would wear when about the craftworld and not an exarch. He had four, one bland and simple, lacking significant decorations, and another for each of the three paths he had walked before becoming an outcast, as the outcast path had their cloaks instead of a tabard. The one he chose was from his first shrine path, the path of the aggressive defense, the path of the Warp Spider. A simple red background, with a black rune that represented the shrine, and a golden border, the tabard reached to his knees, and was secured with a simple woven black belt attached to the tunic. Combined with the black bodysuit which encased him from the neck down, and he cut an impressive but minimalistic figure amongst the overdressed mon-keigh.

He arrived at the communications room, and a quick look showed a dozen chairs arranged around the room, six of them already occupied, and the twins standing near the center. He ignored the stares from the individuals already in the room as he glanced at the chairs, before leaning against the wall. He simply stared at the twins, ignoring the two turians, the quarian, the other two humans, and the krogan. After a moment, he glanced at the others, and realized everyone was gaping at him, no doubt in awe at seeing an Eldar in the flesh for the first time. He simply raised an eyebrow. "I thought there would be a meeting."

The various beings in the room had been staring at him, some with shock, some with confusion, but the three human woman had been slightly more… interested than he appreciated. It was like having a youngling expressing interest in him, and without the mildly flattering feeling that also cause. His comment went without notice, so he simply settled for giving the twins at the head of the room a glare and waiting.

They didn't take long, realizing she was undermining her authority with the various outsiders by not proceeding, and examining the newest alien could, no doubt, be done later. "Right. Since everyone is here, take a seat, and then we will have everyone introduce themselves, state their specialization training and combat experience, as well as any other relevant information they wish to share. I am Joannis Shepard, Lioness of Elysium, Lieutenant Commander of the Systems Alliance. Trained as an adept, and prefer to use my pistol and submachine gun. I enlisted 11 years ago, became an N7, which caused most of my file to become classified."

Jaclyn glanced about, before speaking. "Jaclyn Shepard, Lynx of Elysium, though if you call me that I will order you into the sparring ring and ensure you never do that again. Lieutenant Commander of the Systems Alliance, trained as a vanguard. Weapons of choice are my shotgun, pistol and submachine gun. Enlisted at the same time as my twin, earned the same designation, and the same classified nonsense."

The eldar didn't move, but he was the only one other than the twins not in a chair. After a moment the softer twin sighed, before turning to the figure sitting on one end of the group, to the twin's left side. "Tali, you can start."

The quarian jerked slightly, before nodding. He was modestly surprised to note that her accent was pleasant to listen to, compared to the others, but for some reason she couldn't stop wringing her hands. "Uh, do you want me to stand up when I introduce myself?"

That got a wry grin in response from the human leading the meeting. "If it makes you feel better. But no, you don't have to."

Her comment made the young quarian woman relax, or at least stop trying to pull her fingers out. "I am Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. And it is Miss Zorah or just Tali if you are talking to me, not Miss Rayya, and certainly NOT Gemling."

The quarian turned to glare at him, but he simply met the stare with his impassive, unblinking gaze, and she quickly turned back to the group. "I am an engineer, and specialize in electronic warfare and system repair. Weapons of preference are a heavy pistol and shotgun."

She stopped, apparently having nothing more to add, much to the amusement of the female turian sitting on the twin's right. Next was the sitting human, and she didn't waste time or words. "Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams, Alliance Marine for seven years. Trained with all five major weapons, specialize in all of them. Also proficient with heavy armor, and squad and platoon level tactics."

The human male was next, though he took a moment to glance about the room first. "Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Alliance sentinel. Proficient in pistols and submachine guns. Capable of tech attacks or biotics. I specialize in shoring up weak spots in any team. Been with the Alliance for thirteen years."

The human twins didn't speak, having already spoken. Instead, they turned to the female turian sitting on their right. Heavy armor, its light greys and reds, contrasted to her darker flesh and white facial markings, but none of that did anything to hide the fact she was tiny, even smaller than the twins, who were barely one and two thirds meter tall. She glanced about, before speaking. "Spectre Icivia Kryik, assigned to observe the two newest Spectre members. I am a combat engineer specializing in autonomous turrets and heavy weapons, shotguns, and assault rifles. My credentials are classified."

That got an amused chuckle from the red armored krogan sitting away from the others, occupying one quarter of the room by himself. The turian Spectre gave him a flat stare, but the twins were already turning to the other turian, a male in blue armor and a simple blue stripe across his face and another on the back half of each mandible. He cleared his throat, and tapped his eye piece before speaking. "Detective Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec designated marksman for seven years. Lead investigator and detective for two and four years, respectively. Weapons of preference are sniper rifles, assault rifles, and heavy pistols. I have training in assorted fields, but specialize in software and explosives."

He started to say more, but a quick glance from the Spectre sitting beside him made him pause, before closing his mouth with a click, clearly finished. Another chuckle from the krogan, before the large being started speaking in a voice like gravel grinding against a rock, making the pathfinder wince slightly. "Urdnot Wrex, vanguard and battlemaster. Specialize in killing things, and not dying. Been a merc for nearly six centuries, and wandered the galaxy well before that. Preferred weapons are a shotgun and whatever else happens to be nearby, including a convenient enemy. Met Jaclyn on one of those classified missions, got hired, and that was the start of our working relationship."

Wrex gave a dark chuckle at the last comment, but didn't speak further. The softer twin eventually guessed he was finished, and turned to the last individual in the room. Arlas waited, simply blinking once, before speaking in his normal monotone. "Pathfinder Arlas, eight hundred sixty five years of age, eldar forward scout and skirmisher for... four hundred sixty nine years, senior forward scout and skirmisher for... one hundred and thirty two of those years."

He paused before he listed the various years, doing some quick math to convert the years from his people's over to Citadel standard, acquired from the various people he had been borrowing languages from. He noted the krogan had tilted his head slightly to stare directly at him with one eye as he paused, his emotions spiking a bit with aggression and suspicion, overlaid with a strong feeling of anticipation. He dismissed the krogan from his mind, pulling his thoughts back from the others. "Further training in various positions for a total of… three hundred and forty years. Weapons are varied, outfitted as a long term operative, to operate without resupply, reinforcements or contact. Preferred weapons are my long rifle, sword, and pistol."

He finished talking, and waited. And then blinked, waiting for everyone to get over their confusion. Icivia was the first, giving a scoff of disbelief, but he suspected it was forced, as her eyes spoke of cunning. "I call _svern_ crap. The only species that live that long are krogan and asari, and even they start slowing down at six hundred. Though the rare freak like Wrex here is an exception to that rule. But I have seen recordings of you in action. There is no way you are that old."

He stared at the turian, thinking fast as the angrier twin, standing slightly behind and to the side of her sister, turned to the alien. He realized the turian female was not just here to observe the twins any more. She was also here to watch him, since his interrogation, sorry, political meeting with the Council had been a total waste of time on their part, though he had learned that he wanted nothing to do with those three. So he decided to give her a few things to think on. He gave a tiny smirk, fairly certain no one was looking his way, and opened his mind before 'flipping' a certain part of his thoughts.

It was difficult to describe how a psyker, or one that used psionics or warp powers, did what they did to someone without the same ability. Like trying to describe color to a blind being, or the sky to someone that had lived in a cave their entire life. But the results were not so difficult to describe.

There was a tiny flare of white unlight around his eyes, and a slightest whiff of ozone, before he started projecting his thoughts, and his emotions, mostly disinterest and scorn. * _Well, since you are here to watch me as much as the mon-keigh twins, I suppose I should give you something to report. If only to keep those incompetents you call leaders from shrieking. I am from one third to one fifth of the way into my expected lifespan. For a civilian, we live about a thousand of your years, but with certain training methods we can radically extend our lifespans. I believe the current record for longest lived Eldar is held by a leader of another craftworld, at over fifteen_ _ **thousand**_ _of your years._ *

His tone was arrogant and condescending as he simply stared impassively at the turian Spectre. * _You call yourselves mighty. I call you weak, foolish, hedonistic, and arrogant. Come talk to us about power when your civilization has lasted for its first million years. Then you can speak of knowing what_ _ **real**_ _power is. Until then-_ *

He gave her a condescending smirk, before speaking for the first time since she had called him out. "Be silent, when your elders speak."

Everyone started at the sound of his voice, but he turned and left before anyone else spoke. He actually got into the elevator before being stopped, by the red armored krogan, who stopped him by simply sticking an arm between the doors. The krogan wordlessly stepped into the small space, before looking up at Arlas, who simply glanced down at him, before returning his attention to the door. Or more accurately, the hump that was now blocking his view of it. His action caused the krogan to narrow his eyes, but for several seconds neither spoke.

The krogan eventually gave a hmph, before speaking. "Most people know better than to get into an elevator with a krogan. Or any small, enclosed space, for that matter. Ignoring one in such a place is even worse, but you, you don't just do it without concern, you go and actually dismiss me. That means you are either brave, stupid, or ignorant."

Arlas realized that the krogan was not going to just go away so he looked down and raised an eyebrow, silently asking the alien to get to the point. Instead, the krogan chuckled again, before moving to one side and facing the door, though the alien didn't turn away from him. "Well, guess we'll find out when we get into combat, and if you last longer than five seconds without shields. Be nice to have someone my age around, and not acting like a damned kid."

Arlas didn't reply, but did nod slightly. The trip suddenly didn't seem quite so unbearable for the pathfinder, being stuck in a tiny ship for months on end with aliens that wouldn't stop asking questions. He might have found someone similar enough to him to make the wait between missions somewhat bearable.

The elevator finally reached the bottom, and as the elevator opened to the mostly empty hanger. Arlas walked out of the elevator and toward the empty spot, which suddenly shimmered and blurred, revealing his dark grey and red landing craft, ramp already down and waiting for him. He heard someone swearing behind him, and turned to give the krogan who was staring at the suddenly appearing ship with a calculating look and one hand on his weapon, and gave him a quick smirk. He entered the ship, and closed the ramp, before heading to the personal sections. Maybe staying away from the crew would make the trip better.

* * *

Nope.

The trip to wherever they were going was three days long, with as much as an extra four days once they arrived in the system to find the specific planet. Arlas wished he had a farseer yet again, or more talent with his psy-powers so he would spend less time dodging their overly inquisitive questions. He had to admit the access to fresh food, mostly salad leaves and bread for him though he did swipe a handful of small nuts and a drizzle of a sugary confection the humans called honey just to spite the traditions of the craftworld, almost made the annoyance worth the frustration. They even had fresh _fruit_ , including several he had never seen before, but he refrained from indulging himself that much. He did admit to himself that he might indulge after a successful mission…

He had already endured six full days of incessant pestering, the twins having apparently had the extreme misfortune to plot a course that brought the ship to the proper star for the mission last. He was grateful that the long route had given him time to learn a few things, even when they stopped to respond to a distress beacon. He hadn't been taken down, but apparently they had run into some animal that had given them some problems, and recovered some bodies.

He was actually somewhat proficient with the cognitors the Imperium used, but these humans used computers and omnitools. He had to learn to use them, or would miss a frankly unacceptable amount of information. He had gone to the twins a few hours after the meeting with the rest of the 'specialist team,' as the twins called it, and asked to be taught how to use the computers and omnitools. The Chance and Fate Twins of eldar mythology had immediately proven they were present and up to their usual antics as the Shepard twins immediately agreed and asked Tali to do the training after providing him a omnitool. They mentioned it was a basic model, not going to do much in terms of combat or extra functions, but it would get him used to the systems without worrying about him breaking something expensive.

Arlas couldn't guess why, but Gemling agreed, and while she was less than completely professional, she did give him the coaching he needed to use both systems. She was also assigned to ensure the engine worked, impressing him with her ability to multitask and so he kept his conversations short and to the point so she could focus mostly on her job and he on his. He had yet to figure out some of the attacks he had seen one of the humans do with it, but Tali did mention that would be taught after she was sure he wasn't going to fry her or some important piece of equipment. She did add that everyone shocked themselves the first time they tried to attack with the omnitool, and she hoped he would electrocute himself several times.

The rest of his free time was spent digging through this Extranet thing everyone here seemed to use, learning everything he could about everything. It would have been distracting, some of things he was learning, if he didn't have his habit of two hours of weapons training and maintenance, whether it was needed or not, an hour of exercise, and at least another two hours of psy-craft training.

It was during his training on the seventh day that he felt the lurch that signalled that they were arriving at their destination. No one else seemed to feel or react to dropping out of faster than light travel, but to a warp sensitive eldar, they might have well as set off a bomb. It knocked him out of his psy-craft training, and a small detonation of the gathered energy heated the cleared area of the armory of his landing craft, but damaged nothing. He sighed, and stood up, idly stretching, as Yol-Pvera sent a thought. * _The mon-keigh twins have requested the specialists to the comm room for a briefing. You were not on the requested team._ *

Arlas sent back a feeling of understanding, before pulling on his Warp Spider tunic. He stepped out of his ship, pausing for a moment only to look over his Vyper stored inside the transport bay and made a note to actually pull it out to give the large jetbike a full check later. He had a briefing to attend first.

He arrived in the comm room a few moments later and noted he was the last to arrive. He simply leaned against the wall, folded his arms and began braiding his hair, ensuring it would fit into his helmet for the mission. So he was surprised when the softer Shepard starting speaking. "This mission is going to be myself, my twin, Icivia, Kaidan and Tali. The Mako can only seat a maximum of six and Spectre Icivia is bringing some extra equipment, so Arlas, you aren't required."

Arlas shrugged but remained didn't move. "May I remain to listen? This would be my first human briefing, and I suspect it would be very informative."

Joannis considered his request for a moment before she nodded and went over what she expected groundside. A single geth frigate was in orbit though a couple others were dispersed throughout the planet, apparently looking for something. The geth were mostly scattered in overwatch positions throughout a specific area where a few local power plants could be detected on long range scanners. She went over the probable area of operations, opponents, weapons, and detailing just about everything over a half hour long brief.

The briefing was rather informative so Arlas waited until it was finished and everyone but the Twins to leave before asking his most pertinent question to the twins. "So, why are we not using my craft?"

His question got both the human females to start in surprise, something that would normally amuse him if it wasn't for the fact his fifteen person lander was being sidelined for a six person wheeled vehicle. Sadly, before anyone could say anything, the pilot came over the ship comm. "Approaching the drop point, ETA, fifteen minutes."

The much angrier twin swore, but then shared a glance with her sister, before shaking her head. "Not enough time to brief everyone now. We can use it on the next mission. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Arlas gave a shrug before moving to stand away from the door so the turian female could leave. "It was obvious. I stay on the ship, and assist your operations. You show me the galaxy, and get me and my weapons to help with problems."

The twins shared another glance, before shaking their heads. "Not this mission, we don't have the full team briefed, we don't know enough about your ship to properly determine the best course of action, and further more, we don't have the time. However, when we get back, we need to sit down and talk about that. First, we have a doctor to rescue."

The Twins left the room, leaving the eldar to roll his eyes before heading back to his ship to resume his psy-craft practice and start working on the Vyper.

* * *

Two hours later, he was sitting in the middle of the hangar, under the prow of his ship, ignoring the others in the bay. He had tried to do some divining earlier, but after an hour he had given up and come out to work on direct energy manipulation in the hangar. A ball of pure un-light glowed between his hands, and the smell of ozone was thick and heavy, making it a bit difficult to breath. It also required almost all of his concentration, especially since he was both out of practice, and trying to improve his control, at the same time. If any of his Warlock teachers had seen him trying to do this, he doubted he would have gotten punished with only a rebuke, a cuffing, and a reduction of his rations. He probably would have been kicked out of the shrine entirely for a month, at least.

But he was not in a shrine, he didn't have a teacher with him, so he was taking risks that would never have before. Even worse, he wasn't completely concentrated on the task he was doing. Ashley and Wrex had turned on their omni-tools at some point and started listening to the twins as they fought their way across Therum below. And as soon as he heard the fighting, his concentration had been fragmented. The callouts had been pretty standard, just reports of what they encountered, a threat dealt with or avoided, but a few reports stood out, usually just new names. _Troopers, rocketeers, amarture, juggernaut, destroyer_. Some were called out more often, but they were just names to him.

But he noted there was one name that spiked fear into both minds when it was called. _Colossus._ He had no idea what it was, but the fact that even the normally brash krogan reacted with a trace of fear made him abandon his training the first time it was called. He dismissed the psy-energy, and headed over to the storage area where Ashley stood, inspecting, disassembling, and repairing the various toys that passed as mon-keigh weapons. "What is a colossus?"

The human female jumped as he spoke, before glaring at him and answering. "Ten meter tall geth walker tank. They had two on Eden Prime, but pulled them out before the commanders arrived. It has a heavy anti-tank weapon for vehicles or groups and a heavy machine gun for everything else. Hits hard, and is harder to kill, lots of armor and shields from what I heard on the comms. And they fight smart, and repair themselves fast. And their mako got damaged killing the first one. As long as they don't run into another…"

She was clearly trying to be helpful, but was also letting her nerves get to her. He frowned as he considered it, before realizing she wasn't inured to loss like he was. She was still shaken about having her squad and host shot out from under and around her. He nodded, but before he could respond, both omnitools chimed again, and one of the Shepard's spoke. " _Damn, another Colossus ahead, hasn't seen us yet. Icivia, Kaidan, are those repairs done?"_

" _What can be. Several systems are either shorted out or completely blown out and running on backups."_

" _Damn. Right, we take this slow and careful."_

Arlas stared at the omnitools, before looking at the human, face now pale from lack of blood. "I am going to predict that is a bad thing."

She nodded wordlessly, as Wrex gave a guffaw, before leaning back. "Damn, and here I was thinking this might last a while."

Arlas glanced back at his ship. "So, I assume that I should do what I can to assist at this point, yes? As should the rest of the... Specialist Team, I think the Twins called us?"

Ashley glanced back at him, and then saw him looking at his lander. "You have a ship."

He rolled his eyes though only the krogan saw him as he responded with his usual monotone. "A remarkable deduction, mon-keigh. Clearly, your species are destined for great things with such keen senses and minds. Get the rest of the ground team, I leave in five minutes. Clear it with the steersman and the twins."

He headed to his ship, to get into his armor and ready the ship for the flight. Yol'Pvera was already running the pre-flight checks. As he entered the ship, he heard Ashley ask, "Did… Did he just call me a monkey?"

Arlas frowned as he paused, wondering why Wrex was laughing that hard, before shrugging to himself and dismissing the suddenly distracting thought. _What, by Khaine's gore drenched sword, is a monkey?_

* * *

Seven minutes later, the last of the mon-keigh came jogging in, the male turian. "Spirits, we're going, we aren't going, we are going… Can someone make up their mind or not?"

Arlas was in full armor, and showing the others where to sit, putting Wrex on one end with an empty seat beside him. He was a fair bit larger than the normal passengers, so Arlas was having to retool the seat. He was lucky the wraithbone was still active and attuned to him, so he could just merge the seats for the krogan. But the turian would require a minute to fix his seat so the grav-tethers in the seats would hold him in place rather than letting him fly about the troop bay if the craft had to make a sudden maneuver.

As he adjusted the seats, the eldar glanced at Ashley. "Human, are the doors going to open, or am I required to open them myself?"

Ashley glared at his back, as he knelt next to the seat. "I have a name, _eldar_. And yes, we are over the site, the commander is waiting, and Joker is opening the bay now."

Arlas actually smiled under his helm, and stood up. "Turian, this is your seat, using the others will result in your unexpected flight about the troop bay. All of you, don't touch the vehicle in the back. I don't need to do any more repairs to it."

On cue, every head turned to the corner that didn't have chairs, examining the medium sized vehicle with a large weapon mount on the back and he watched their thoughts as they examined it. He found their impressions of it rather enlightening. They first noted that it was conical in shape, though the bottom was flattened and had two short, stubby wings attached to the back. Next were the weapons; a single barrel hanging under the main chassis, of significant caliber judging by the size of the barrel, and an identical pair of different weapons mounted to the stand behind the cockpit. While they were examining his heavily modified Vyper, he stepped up to the wall opposite the bay door, and as it sealed, the wall suddenly slid open, revealing a door further in.

He heard a few of the mon-keigh swearing in astonishment, though they were cut off when the door resealed itself. He smirked, and left his weapons on their storage racks, and headed into the cockpit. Once there, he sat down, and merged his mind with the psychoreactive materials that made up the ship. His mind quickly expanded, interpreting the signals and sensations of the wraithbone as sound, touch, and sight, though he was surprised to realize that he could sense and control some functions of the Vyper from here. Apparently Yol'Pvera had been improving the sensitivity of the wraithbone while they had been planet hopping.

Regardless, he had just finished expanding his senses when the bay doors opened, and Yol'Pvera sent that they were ready. He mentally reached out, and brushed against the four minds in the troop bay and the pilot of the Normandy. * _Vampire lander departing hangar bay._ *

The short squad in the lander jerked at his projected thought, causing him to roll his eyes and send annoyance. * _Stop jumping, you are worse than civilians in a warzone._ *

He put the lander on course for the location where the human female had said the Twins were. The lander's bay door shimmered and revealed the view from the cockpit, the intent being to let the passengers see what they were landing in. A minute later they were skimming over the broken landscape, staying lower than his passengers liked judging by the mounting fear he could feel in the back, though the krogan was making enough noise of enjoyment he could faintly hear him even with two walls in the way, but he wasn't going to go higher to get spotted by every machine in the hemisphere. After a few seconds, he could mentally reach out and sense the six in the human vehicle.

A quick sense of their emotions showed their position was bad, but not so much that any of them were panicking. Concerned, yes, but more than that would require him to see the field. After a second of careful consideration, he relayed his plan to Yol'Pvera, putting her on the piloting, while he fired the pulsar. Since it was hard mounted onto the spine of the craft, and could only aim a couple degrees to one side or another due to the focusing crystals, it needed the more skilled pilot to aim the craft, with the co-pilot to provide precision corrections.

He made sure the lander was in range for the massive laser, and noted that, at the usual distances it was fired they were practically point blank, before having Yol'Pvera perform an ' _iyalith angue,_ ' or leaping death, bouncing the craft high over the next mountain range to to give them a perfect line of sight on the geth walker. He nudged the focusing crystal slightly to one side, and then caressed the firing chamber, causing a gout of white light to spring from the prow of his landing craft to impact the geth titan on its right shoulder, just slightly off center.

For a second, all that could be seen was a flash of bright white light, and then the explosion from the laser was gone, revealing a hole in the ground a three meters deep and across the entire path. He let his thoughts reach the mon-keigh, deigning to allow them to observe the perfection that was the Eldar's weaponry. * _Hmm, too much gun, I believe. Perhaps we should use the pulse lasers on the Colossus instead. Where was it?_ *

The only word he could use to describe the swirling cloud of emotions in the back was flabbergasted. Also the normal status of most aliens that the Eldar dealt with, before it turned to hostility, likely due to their innate imperfections causing jealousy. He laughed to himself at the arrogance of that thought, before turning his attention back to the ship, and heading toward where the mon-keigh scout vessel wallowed.

He landed the vessel on the path next to the ground vehicle, and opened the troop bay, letting everyone out. He stayed in the cockpit, listening through the omnitool as Ashley reported to the Twins. He was only half paying attention, as he had been at the center of it, and soon they called up the larger ship still in orbit, ordered it down to collect the ground vehicle, after which the entire ground team got on board. A quick check on the Twin's thoughts, as trying to only grab one of the Twin's minds while they were in proximity was nearly impossible, revealed where they were supposed to go. Literally about a quarter of a kilometer, though the ground vehicle would have had another two kilometers to go to avoid the lava pools and obstructions along the way.

Arlas rolled his eyes, before reaching out to the mon-keigh looking about the troop bay. * _Seats everyone. We are about ten seconds from the landing point, though I am going to take a minute to do a circle, make sure we don't get shot out of the sky trying to land and drop everyone off. And Ghost, hands off the Vyper!_ *

He felt shock, a flicker of guilt, anger and surprise from the female turian, before he activated the anti-gravity engines. The vehicle bounced into the air, causing the turian female to quickly scramble for a seat. He sealed the door, and did a quick loop at a half kilometer from the landing zone, pausing to fire the twin-linked pulse lasers at various infantry units and sniper nests, clearing the immediate vicinity. Once the circle was done, he headed for the indicated area, where a half collapsed structure stood near a hole in the ground.

He circled one last time, before setting down in the clear area just beyond the structure, using the cliff over lava to make it easier to position the lander for offloading. After everyone was out, he retreated from the ship, pulling his senses back in, and waited a moment to return to normal. It was difficult, after feeling the wind whipping across his hull, heat kissing the plates, but he stood, and grabbed his weapons from the armory, before stepping out of the lander. A quick check ensured he had all three of his 'main' weapons, long rifle, pistol, and fusion gun, plus the witchblade, so he sent a thought to Yol'Pvera. * _Circle at two kilometers, holo-field engaged, and intercept any landing craft that try to land or drop troops. Try not to have too much fun shooting everything down._ *

All he got from his companion eldar was a feeling of contemptuous annoyance at such a simple task, before the bay door sealed, and the lander vanished. He heard its engines whisper as it took off, and he turned to join the group of Mon-Keigh, idly wondering what pranks to play on them. They were all gathered near the half collapsed structure, standing in the shade, and arguing. He simply turned on his omnitool, and listened to the talk of tactics and squad composition, before suddenly getting distracted.

The distraction was a whistling noise, followed by a metallic and slightly hollow sounding thump, which then repeated a quite rapidly, and finally finished with an even louder whistling and thump. He noticed everyone else in his group scattering, and glanced behind him. He noticed about thirty geth troops of various colors, and one four legged walker, about six meters tall, all of them glaring at him as they stood up. * _Ah, right.*_

He nodded sagely, and then activated his jump pack, landing on the other side of the structure, as the location where he had been standing exploded. * _So THAT was what that noise was. Now I know._ *

Ashley glared at him as she yanked her assault rifle out, and started peppering the approaching troops with fire. "Be impressed later, fight now."

Then a loud whoosh, followed by another explosion, and things got very noisy and hectic, very quickly.

 _A/N - Current poll will close on 17 November, and the next one goes up. Get your votes in, determine the flow of the story. Also, enjoy the story, I write it for you guys. And girls. And those who don't identify with a binary gender. :P_


	10. Of Damsels and Debriefings

**Chapter 10 - Damsels and Debriefings**

 _A/N - Split this from the previous chapter, as it was starting to get longer than I wanted. And because that Armature fight is a normal cliffhanger in most ME stories, despite it not being THAT big of a fight once you have played through it once._

 _Also, I just want to say, to everyone that has viewed this little mental exercise of mine, that favorited, followed, or reviewed it, thank you. This story is now in the top 50, second page, of the Warhammer/Mass Effect cross overs, and easily my most whatevered story as of posting this, in all three categories. Reviews, Favorites, and Follows. This is a tremendous boost to me, and is easily what is keeping me writing. Just to see if I can get it to the front page of the Warhammer/Mass Effect crossovers, beating out several much older stories. Once again, thank you._

 _Also, just a heads up, this is the last week for the current poll, before it is closed and the next is opened. Hurry and vote, and help the Eldar choose where to focus his training and upgrades._

' _Harriers for the Cup!' - Lord Commissar Ciaphas Cain_

Arlas looked down at the remains of the walker, and then sent the group an amused thought, though he was directing it mostly at the Twins. * _I thought you said these things were dangerous._*

The slimmer twin, Jaclyn, raised a hand with only the middle finger extended, as Joannis finishing looking over the group for anyone that was wounded. "Screw you. Not everyone can cheat by shooting through shields and teleporting wherever the hell they want."

Arlas simply shrugged, before yanking his sword out of the chest of the walker, and then jumping down. * _Where was the geth ship? Yol'Pvera didn't warn me about anything breaking her two kilometer perimeter_.*

Jaclyn turned back to him, and frowned. "Who is Yol'Pvera?"

Arlas shrugged. "Where did the geth deploy from? I saw no ship."

Jaclyn glared. "Who is Yol'Pvera?"

"Where did the geth deploy from?"

Joannis saved them from having to repeat their routine further. "They are machines. Probably deployed by a fast moving frigate in either low orbit or at high altitude."

Arlas nodded. "Yol'Pvera is the pilot of my lander."

Before Jaclyn could drag him into another round of questioning, Joannis whistled to get everyone's attention. "Alright people, the primary VIP should be in the mine, as well as those 'off the chart' readings Joker picked up. Wrex, you and Garrus will be staying out here with Tali and Ashley, ensure our ability to leave is secure and that the geth don't drop more enemies off to trap us in the mine. Retreat inside if you have to. Everyone else, with us."

Arlas glanced at his group, and pulled out his long rifle. Since he would be with Ghost, Twins, and the human male, he would have to be the long distant death dealer. He could also fill in for fast flanker, but that would require weapon swapping, which might get someone killed if they were relying on and expecting his rifle, and it might even be him. They would just have to be cautious.

The Twins took point, with Ghost and male on their flanks, and Arlas taking rear guard. The mine shaft quickly ended in an airlock, which took far too long to cycle. Once it did, it opened into a snaking tunnel, never going further than ten meters before it made another turn. After a moment of careful advancement, the tunnel brought them to an elevator and a glowing blue barrier blocking off an entrance to some kind of structure. The group took a quick ride on the elevator into the bowels of the earth, before both twins paused, and then fired their weapons at something ahead, around a bend in the tunnel. At the sound of two explosions, Jaclyn vanished in a blue light, and a third explosion echoed up the tunnel.

Arlas rounded the corner, to see the Twins looking down, examining some sort of track and platform. As the others arrived, they glanced at each other, and Arlas frowned as he actually sensed something between the two, but it was over too fast for him to tell if it was just them thinking the same thought, or if they had actually been thought sharing. Both Twins stepped onto the platform. "Come on."

He wasn't sure which of the Twins spoke, but they all stepped onto the platform without a word.

The platform only got about three levels down before it jammed, but it was close enough to the bottom for the others to jump. Arlas surveyed where he was and what he could see, before going prone and activating his cloak. * _I will stay here, machines on the other side of the chamber, group of twelve advancing to this side._ *

All four of the mon-keigh with him jerked at his sending, which made him sigh. But they did keep advancing, and took positions on the walkway they had landed on, waiting for the machines to advance. The machines, however, stopped at the corner, as if they knew the mon-keigh were in cover on the high ground of the walkway. * _Twins, they have stopped. Orders?_ *

He hadn't worked a radio into his helm yet, but the omnitool was enough to relay their command. "Hit them in five seconds."

He watched the Twins both leap down, and begin advancing, Jaclyn ahead of Joannis. At five seconds they were about two steps from being seen by the machines, so he fired his long rifle, the laser bolt easily melting through the armor of the larger red machine at the back, and causing it to explode in a shower of white fluids and metal fragments.

Sadly for Arlas, every geth chassis, thirty scattered about the room in addition to the eleven still standing at the ambush point, though they were starting to scatter, immediately raised their weapons in his direction, and put enough firepower at him to begin warping the metal of the already damaged platform further. * _Attention acquired, relocating._ *

Before he could move, though, the Twins stepped around the corner, and hit the still-grouped geth with some kind of light-distorting bubble, and then with a blue ball that caused the distortion to explode with more force than anything he had ever experienced outside an artillery bombardment by the forces of Chaos. He actually yelped in surprise at the force of the explosion, despite being several tens of meters from it, and the Twins were actually thrown backwards by their own blasts, though they managed to stay standing. The geth, however, were rendered into fine shrapnel going everywhere, and the fire from the other troopers in the room shifted from the elevator to the Shepard twins.

Arlas moved back to the edge, and began picking off geth, as the Twins dashed toward cover, and Ghost and the human male jumped down. Another massive explosion turned a four meter tall white geth into so much scrap metal, while the male was busy stripping shields from the troopers so Ghost could do something to the geth that made it turn on its allies most of the time. Though once it instead charged her, causing the turian to swear and use her shotgun on it.

Several times, Arlas watched a geth trooper try to sneak up on the Twins, only for the two to turn and blast it with either their blue psy-craft or guns. But only if he wasn't already going to shoot it. It was almost enough to make him think they were psykers.

Still, it took only a few minutes to finish clearing the last of the area around the white underground structure of the geth, and then all four of the mon-keigh walked toward it, the human male pausing long enough to do something to a minor hit he had taken, though what they were looking at and… talking to? He couldn't see what they were doing, and moved to correct that. A minute later, he was beside the others, talking to a blue skinned woman that he mistook for a Tau because of the blue field between them, but quickly realized she had head tentacles and feet, rather than a smooth head, hair, and hooves. He had seen several asari on the Citadel, but hadn't gotten a good look at most of them due to the urgency of trying to find Gemling, the psychic noise from the lesser races that pervaded the space station, and the fact he had been trying to avoid the C-Sec for most of it, which most of the asari he had seen had been part of. Of course, he had seen a few at that ceremony thing, but lack of interest had kept him from taking advantage of that opportunity, and the less he thought about the meeting with the Council, the better.

While he was examining the floating asari, despairing as he realized she was basically a human with head tentacles and noting her desperation, exhaustion, and soiled outfit, the others were talking. "And be careful, there was a krogan with the geth. They have been trying to get through the barrier curtain. I hope you have more luck."

Arlas frowned, as Kaidan glanced about. "Ma'am, I don't see the krogan among the dead down here, and with one tunnel leading in, it would be hard to miss him."

Both twins nodded, as they surveyed the chamber they were in. "Spread out, see if you can find anything that might help."

Arlas looked about, before pulling his sword out. "Found something."

Everyone turned back to him, surprised, until they saw the sword. Ghost rolled her eyes and scoffed, before heading off to keep looking, while the male had just kept walking. The Twins glanced back, and then exchanged a glance, causing another flicker on his psy-sense, before leaning against a couple nearby crates. "You really think a sword will do anything?"

He simply walked to one side of the barrier covered opening, and began running his free hand along the side of the structure. "As opposed to everything out here, that the geth have been examining for… how long have you been stuck?"

The asari finally realized he was being serious, and answered. "Two days. And I doubt a mere sword will do anything to the structure. It is made out of the hardest substance we have yet encountered, and I doubt a human sword will do anything to it."

Arlas rolled his eyes inside his helmet, and channeled warp energies into the blade, causing it to softly glow with unlight in the dim cavern. "I am **not** human."

He placed the blade tip against the structure, where his foresense was saying something would happen, before pushing. "I am Eldar."

He was a bit disappointed as the blade slowly began sinking into the structure, he had wanted to shove the blade to the hilt in one quick movement, but apparently slowly driving the blade into the structure was just as good. All three mon-keigh watched with wide eyes as the blade slowly sank, and a second later the barrier curtain flickered, but restored itself. He pulled the blade clear, ignoring the sparking of the barrier, and resumed running his hand along the edge. He found another spot along the side he was examining where his foresense tingled, and this time, when the blade was fully shoved into the wall, the curtain actually dropped for a second, instead of just dimming. However it quickly came back up, though now it would shimmer and flicker instead of just shifting.

He had to find two more spots, on the other side of the hole, before the barrier fell and stayed down, during which the male and Ghost returned having found a mining laser that might be useful. Ghost was busy examining one of the holes he had made, while Kaidan just watched and recorded the destruction of the last barrier node, shaking his head. The asari just gaped like a landed oceanic creature.

Once the barrier was down, the Twins headed through, and deactivated the bubble the asari was floating in once she had stopped being aghast at Arlas. After a moment to drink some water and get her limbs moving, the asari staggered back to the center of the structure. "This elevator should take us to the top, and I can deactivate the curtain barrier at the top."

She swayed on her feet, but pushed the button when the last of the group got on. No one said anything as the elevator slowly rose, remarkably quiet considering the location. Arlas figured they were halfway up the structure, judging from a hole in the platform he looked down, whatever the structure was, when the squad's radio crackled. "Shepard, Ashley. Just fought off a group of geth, but a krogan and about a half dozen geth troopers carrying packs made it inside. Might wanna hurry."

That got the rest of the group to exchange a look, while Arlas just kept watching the approaching top. Three quarters of the way there…

"Alright everyone, prepare for trouble. Find cover first, THEN start shooting."

The elevator was mostly bare of cover, only the console in the middle providing anything close to it, and the asari was leaning heavily on it, looking about to collapse. Arlas headed to the edge of the elevator, before activating his cloak, and then firing his grappling hook up at the approaching ceiling. After a second of travel, it bounced off with a tiny clink, and landed beside him. Guessing he would have to just be patient like everyone else, he spooled the wire, and turned to watch the others.

Joannis checking on the asari, before standing and putting a bubble like the barrier curtains up around the two of them. Ghost was tossing small floating metal items around, setting out four of them before deploying a glowing orange shield in front of herself. Jaclyn sheathed herself in a blue aura, and readied her weapon, while the human male encased himself in a blue aura, and then added glowing orange panels above that. Arlas was amused at how… obvious they all were, but wasn't going to complain. They would distract the geth and hostile krogan from him while he got into position.

Just before the elevator hummed to a stop on the top floor, the eldar drew his fusion gun, cloak already active, and dropped to a crouch, before slowly stalking to the nearest pillar, one of eight scattered around the top floor, the only real cover in the room. A quick glance to the barrier curtain showed it flickering up and down, almost at random. A krogan with his own blue aura was stomping forward, eying the four opponents he could see, with seven geth flanking him, four white, two red, and a black machine in the back. All eight were wearing packs of some kind, though the packs were small enough to be easily thrown.

Arlas frowned at his last thought, before raising his fusion gun and stalking closer, toward one of the pillars nearest the group. The krogan looked over the groups, before speaking. {Surrender. Or don't; that would be more fun.}

Arlas swore; he had no idea what the krogan was saying. He would need to leech that specific language from the krogan on board at some point. Luckily, it seemed Jaclyn could understand him, and sneered. "Maybe you missed the fact that half my squad was outside, and you are down considerably more than that. Hurry up, and DIE."

Arlas brought up his fusion gun as everyone else started moving toward cover and opening fire. He was in already cover against the pillar, when it suddenly opened a vent and blasted steam right into his face. He jerked in surprise, but his finger was already pulling the trigger, and the first shot went high, catching only the two nearest geth, a red and white one, with the burst, instead of hitting the line. The blast of steam knocked him out of cover and off balance, as well as disrupted his cameleoline cloak, revealing him right as the krogan turned to see where that blast of heat had come from.

The krogan gave a roar as he leveled his shotgun and charged, while the Eldar simply rolled his eyes and dove behind the pillar again. "Typical, really."

He replaced the fusion gun on his back, and grabbed his pistol and sword, when he heard the krogan scream in pain and thud into the other side of the pillar as the Twins gestured toward the krogan. A quick glance showed most of the other hostiles down, the last geth behind another pillar with its back to him, his allies hammering the pillar with fire as Ghost stalked around to get a better shot. He hosed the geth down with the projectiles from his pistol, quickly flaying away its shield, and then its armor and insides, before moving to see the krogan.

The krogan was a gruesome sight, missing both legs, his left hand was a mangled mess, and an eye had popped and was oozing down his face. His gun was off to one side, but that didn't stop the krogan from tapping away at his omnitool. Arlas turned back to the group. "Got a live one, if anyone have any pressing questions."

He turned back to the Krogan, and placed the blade tip against the krogan's throat, the wide blade bocking the alien's view of its omnitool. "Stop typing unless you desire to lose another appendage."

The krogan didn't stop, just nodded. A couple more taps, and he stopped right as Arlas pulled the blade back to slam it into his shoulder. "Alright, alright. Stopping. There, happy?"

Arlas simply stared down, but the Twins had arrived, letting the human male assist the asari while Ghost was collecting her turrets. As Arlas stepped back, he heard something beep softly, so quietly that he almost missed it, but a glance showed no one else casting about for it. Letting the Twins handle interrogating the suddenly sedate krogan, he went looking for whatever had beeped.

He vaguely overheard the krogan and Twins interrogating him, and Kaidan carefully helping the exhausted asari to the exit, but with most of his attention on whatever had beeped, he took a couple seconds to realize that Ghost was talking to him. "What are you doing?"

He glanced at the female turian, before turning back to the geth he had been examining. "I heard something beeping. I am making sure the geth don't have any surprises on them."

She rolled her eyes, and brought up her omnitool. "Savage, you can just use your omnitool to scan for active elec... tron...ics…"

She blinked at her tool, and tapped it a couple times, before turning to another geth. She then flipped the geth over, and yanked open the pack it was carrying, dumping several blocks of a dark grey material, and a small golden metal stick shoved into each one, which was making the beeping noise Arlas had been hearing. He nodded as the turian tightened her mandibles against her face. "Ah, that is what I was hearing. Good to know. What is it?"

Ghost turned, ignoring him, horror suffusing through her mind. "Shepards, armed XDX charges! RUN!"

The krogan immediately started cackling maniacally, creaming taunts the suddenly retreating group. "Run. RUN! You can only delay the inevitable. For SOVEREIGN!"

Arlas had drawn his long rifle, and turned and shot the krogan in his right shoulder, preventing him from immediately activating the explosives. But his foresense was still screaming danger at him. So he did what any sensible eldar would do in that situation, and ran like the wind. He took a single glance back as he rounded the first corner, and saw the krogan fumbling with its shotgun one handed, trying to get the barrel into its mouth with its bad hand, and decided to run faster, even as the barrier curtain flickered back up.

He made it two more turns, and was just catching up to the rest of the group when he heard a weapon discharge behind him, followed also immediately by the sounds of explosives going off. The tunnel they were in rolled like a wave on water, and then chunks began falling out of the ceiling. The Twins yanked the barely conscious asari between them, putting one of her arms around their necks and each grabbed a leg before sprinting for the exit. "MOVE!"

It was rather hard to pass the Twins with their passenger taking up most of the walkway, so Kaidan put a blue aura around the group, causing any rocks that hit it to deflect away, and ran in front of them, leaving Ghost and Arlas to bring up the rear. The sounds of ever larger sections of rock tearing free from the ceiling as more and more of the tunnel collapsed made it difficult to think, the dust made it even harder to think, but somehow everyone made it out, to find the second team waiting for them amid a field of destroyed geth, and the lander just settling down at the base of the ramp to let everyone in.

Once everyone was in but before they were secure, Arlas lifted the lander off, just as the mountain that contained the structure rumbled and began collapsing. A quick pulse of the engines added a hundred meters to their altitude in time to avoid several rocks and pieces of metal being blown out of the mine entrance, which impressed the eldar, as there had been two thick steel doors in the way. Arlas checked with Yol'Pvera, and had her set a course for the space ship.

* * *

An hour after returning to the ship, Arlas was finally finished modifying the seat for the unusual anatomy of the other, more esoteric, passengers he would be ferrying about. The krogan and male turian had tried out the seat, ensuring they wouldn't injure their occupants, and he had simply duplicated the turian's seat for Ghost. It was then that Yol'Pvera contacted him. * _The Twins are requesting you report for a debrief. Same room as before._ *

He had already changed into a tunic, this time choosing the Striking Scorpion tunic, as he felt he could justify the brighter colors. It was dark grey with green and yellow designs worked into the fabric, and a bright red rune proudly displayed in the center of the tunic. Since he was done with everything else that needed to happen before the next deployment, he grabbed his cloak and pistol out of habit, and made his way to the comm room, pausing only long enough to grab a couple of small crystals. As he walked, he used a touch of power to fuse the two crystals together, and placed the crystal, now as wide and long as two fingers, into a pocket of the tunic.

As he entered the room, he heard the pilot speaking. "Just as well the lander was there ma'am, otherwise we would have been picking rocks and pieces of steel out of the hull. Just saying, the brass tend to get unhappy about shrapnel in the hull without a kill or assist to offset it."

The asari was looking far more alert now than we they had fled the site, and looked at the twins. "We get ambushed, nearly killed by an explosion, and your pilot is complaining about shrapnel?"

The Twins nodded together, before Joannis replied. "More like joking in his own way, but it helps ease the tension and ground out stress. A coping mechanism."

Jaclyn smirked as she continued. "But he is a jerk. Arrogant too, but comes with being one of the best pilots in the Systems Alliance. Arlas, glad you could finally deign to join us."

Arlas leaned against the wall, and simply stared at the Twins, unmoving and barely blinking. However, Joannis didn't wait for the stand off to finish, instead turning to the rest of the group. "Good job team, mission complete, only minor injuries, not counting the pounding the geth gave the mako before the cavalry arrived."

The asari looked about the room. "Yes, thank you for the rescue. You all saved my life, and not just from the collapse of the structure or being caught in its fields. The krogan kept insisting that I would only be escorted to Saren, but I doubt he was truthful."

The human male spoke up. "About that, why does Saren want you so badly? Do you know anything about the Conduit?"

The asari recoiled slightly, before shaking her head. "I don't know, but Saren was always interested in Prothean relics and artifacts. As for the Conduit, all I know is that it was a major project, related to the Prothean's extinction."

Arlas listened with only minor interest as the asari went on to describe what she knew, which was mostly guesswork even by her own admission, but she kept insisting that there was something more about the Prothean's extinction event, part of a larger picture, with something else coming along behind to clean up clues as to what happened to them. Arlas did not miss the Twins exchanging a look, before Joannis spoke. "Actually, doctor, I might be able to help you with that theory. I suspect they were wiped out by something else. Something the Protheans call Reapers."

While Joannis was speaking, Arlas was attaching the fused crystal to the wall behind him, directly over a light fixture by the door. It would record everything that happened in the room, audio and visual, though it used tamed psyker energy to power it rather than something these beings knew how to detect. A second pulse of power made it fade into the immaterium, making it extremely unlikely someone would be able to find it physically. Done with that, he returned to the conversation to note Ghost and Jaclyn were both giving him an odd look, while Saren and Benezia's voice recording played again. He simply gave them a raised eyebrow, before casually dismissing their scrutiny to return to the conversation.

The asari looked horrified as she listened, though she waited until the end to lean forward and put her face in her hands. "That was my mother. The second voice."

Joannis nodded. "We already determined that, it was how we knew to come looking for you."

After a moment, the asari raised her head, clearly getting control over herself again. "Then I am to assume I am being taken into custody to determine if I am a threat, or useful against Saren and…"

She stopped, but Joannis interrupted. "No, we have already determined you knew nothing of what was happening."

The asari glanced at Ghost in confusion, who was simply watching the Twins with twitching mandibles, her posture tense. Jaclyn spotted it, and sighed. "The entire kidnap plot was too elaborate to be faked. Too distant and contrived if it was. I and my sister agree that the abduction attempt was a legitimate attempt to acquire her. The only people that would try faking something like that are writers, someone with only the most minimal grasp of reality, or a politician. A better plant would have been closer, or even after she already 'surrendered.'"

After a moment Ghost nodded slowly, and Joannis picked up the thread. "That doesn't mean we won't be taking precautions. Doctor Liara T'soni, due to the threat of another abduction attempt, and the fact you are a person of interest in the investigation of former Spectre Saren Arterius' treason, we are asking that you remain on board the ship while we sort this out, within reason. Should you agree, we are also prepared to offer room and board, though all will be standard human military, as well as a consultation pay for your prothean expertise. You might be just as instrumental in breaking this case open as us three Spectres."

The asari tilted her head, before nodding. "I can agree to those terms. But you said that there were three Spectres here? Who are they?"

The Twins simply smirked and nodded. "Icivia Kryik is the senior Spectre on board, but my twin and I, Jaclyn and Joannis Shepard, are the Spectres in charge of this investigation. Icivia is here to provide combat engineering expertise and mentoring."

Jaclyn gave the asari a wide, malicious grin. "Don't watch the news much?"

The asari just gaped, before turning and looking at Arlas, who had simply been watching the entire exchange, not deigning to participate. Neither had the krogan or the human female, but they hadn't caught the asari's attention yet. After a moment, the asari shook her head, and turned back to the Twins. "Where would you like me to stay? I would like to rest and recover."

A quick glance, another tiny spike of psyker power, before Joannis spoke. "Second level, behind the medbay is a free room. Will be cozy and a bit bare, but unless you want to use sleeper pods or bunk with the rest of the crew, that is the best we can offer."

The asari nodded after a moment, and the Twins looked around. "Anything else important that should be brought to our attention?"

Arlas spoke. "How often do krogan kill themselves to set off explosive charges?"

Everyone stared at him, causing him to realize he had spoke in eldar, before repeating himself in human. This time, he got a response from Wrex. "If they have nothing else to lose? Then every krogan worth the name. What happened?"

Arlas let Ghost describe what had occurred at the top of the shaft, though Arlas had to add his actions after the group started sprinting. "I inflicted extreme injury upon his right shoulder with my long rifle, before retreating. As I withdrew, I observed the krogan attempting to put his weapon, similar to yours, in his mouth, while his destroyed left hand tried to work the trigger."

The krogan frowned, before shaking his head. "No, that was not normal. The threat was right, but the ending part of it was not something any krogan worth his armor would do. He would have taunted you with his name, not someone else's."

Icivia shrugged. "Maybe he was just that loyal to Saren?"

The red armored krogan was suddenly standing and across the room, with a speed that actually impressed Arlas, and shoved his face right into Ghost's. "Loyalty to a turian? The same species that emasculated our race? Don't be stupid, turian. Your people get loyalty from mine for as long as you pay and not one second longer. Certainly not enough to encourage us to go out like that."

The krogan turned and stomped out of the room, and after a moment Arlas shrugged and followed. This time, the krogan activated the elevator, and Arlas stopped it from descending with only one passenger. He didn't look at the fuming krogan as he took up the same spot from their first ride, but this time he actually spoke. "So, what did the turians do to your people to enrage you so?"

Arlas was expecting the krogan to verbally snap at him. He was not expecting the krogan to turn and charge him.

Arlas swore and tried to dodge, but the combination of surprise and narrow confines meant he couldn't get out of the way. He was picked up and slammed into the far wall of the elevator, held there by an enraged krogan. Not even on the top twenty worst positions he had ever been in, but definitely the top five when he remembered he only had his pistol and no armor.

Arlas simply stared down into one of Wrex's eyes, and ignored the pain in his back. "I will forgive. Once. Now unhand me and talk like a sapient."

He didn't finish the rest of the thought, but he could see the rage slowly dying in Wrex's eye, reducing it to exhausted anger. The arm holding him up immediately began relaxing, and after a tense half minute, finally released him. The krogan sighed, some emotion overwhelming him. "The Shepards said you were new to Citadel space. What do you know about the Krogan?"

Arlas noted Wrex hadn't given him room, but at least he wasn't being pressed against the wall anymore. "Considered a high threat species. Natural regeneration, resistance to small arms, high aggression. Appear to have a tribal or feudal government. Don't like turians, apparently."

Wrex snorted at that. "Not important enough to do much research on?"

"Not enough time and too much other work required. Working on more common and current enemies. As well as everything else I can."

"Huh. Well, whatever. Citadel ran into something vicious fifteen hundred years ago. They couldn't stop them, they were called the rachni. But then they found us. Naturally warlike, high reproduction, nearly unkillable, we were perfect for their needs to defeat the rachni. But after we killed them, they gave us a few planets to keep us busy, and then ignored us. When we needed more space because we couldn't stop breeding, they denied us. We rebelled, and then they found and convinced the turians to help stop us. The turians only stalled us, we replaced our warriors too fast, and too many kids were raised by those that found glory in the Rachni War and then the Rebellion, so we just kept hitting them.

Eventually, the salarians came up with a fix, a disease, a bioengineered plague, that neutered our race. Our women could lay a thousand fertile eggs at a time before, but after the Genophage, they lay a thousand eggs, painfully, and all those eggs will die and break, the half formed child spilling onto the ground to die. One in a thousand will live to become a child. A best."

Arlas listened, before nodding as the elevator reached the hangar level. "Thank you for the knowledge."

Arlas murmured to himself as he turned to leave. "But at least you have something to be thankful for."

He was not aware of how keen Wrex's hearing was, before the krogan turned back and snarled. "Thankful for WHAT!?"

Arlas stopped, halfway to his lander. After a second, he glanced at Wrex over his shoulder. "That you have someone else to hate for your people's decline and destruction other than only your own."

Wrex's confusion was apparent even though Arlas wasn't looking, but the eldar was already inside the lander's bay, sealing the door before Wrex could say anything.

 _A/N - One more week, then the current poll goes down, and the new one goes up. If you enjoyed the antics, leave a review, hit the favorite, or just keep coming back, keeping this story as my most read and favorited and followed and stuff._


	11. Prevarications and Deceptions

**Chapter 11 - Prevarications and Deceptions**

A/N _\- Hit two major milestones with this story, 50 reviews and 100 favorites. Thanks to all the readers. Hope you all continue to enjoy._

 _Also, got the results for my first poll, and the winner was… Psyker abilities! With a total of 97 votes from 55 voters in the poll, Psyker took a healthy lead and never lost it. Psyker_ _won with 42votes, Precision_ _came in second with 22, Damage_ _squeaked out a third place with 15, beating Flanking_ _out which only got 12 votes, and finally, in the back and needing a nap, Stealth_ _came in dead last with only 6 votes._

 _Also the new poll is now up, so run over and take a look, and drop a vote._

 _Just an FYI, all of my source books are from the late 90s, being from 3rd edition. So if the information seems wrong, toss me a PM or review (from your account otherwise I can't respond!) and I will address your issues._

' _For the Emperor!' - Every human, ever._

Arlas frowned, stretching his limbs as he rose from the meditation circle in the armory of his lander. It had been almost a week since they had finish rescuing the asari, and it had been mostly uninteresting, cruising through space to wherever they were going next. At first they had lingered in the system they had picked up the asari, but after two days they hadn't detected a single geth on the planet or the local solar space, so they had departed. Just now, he had been knocked out of his psyker meditations by the ship lurching from faster than light travel. How the mon-keigh's dull senses missed the universe thrashing as they accelerated or decelerated was still a mystery to him even after a month.

* _The Twins have requested you for a preliminary briefing_ *

He simply sent his affirmative at Yol'Pvera's announcement, before quickly heading to his room, and throwing on his Warlock tabard, grabbing his pistol, and heading for the communication room. This tabard was almost purely black, with the craftworld's sigil emblazoned in gold in the center, and dark red and green sigils for protection, wisdom, guidance, and direction subtly woven into the fabric. The secondary sigils had no actual power, but to an eldar they proudly displayed his expertise and shrines. Done making himself modest by the prudish mon-keigh standards, he headed for the meeting room.

A short wait later for and then on the elevator, and he was the last to arrive in the meeting room. The Twins nodded to him in greeting, before looking around and speaking. "Alright, everyone is here. Let's get this brief started."

Arlas frowned and looked over the mostly empty room. Only Ghost, and the human male and female were there with him. "I can fit everyone in the lander. Why is the whole team not here?"

Jaclyn glared at the eldar. "Because not every mission calls for bringing every possible gun we have. And because if something happens to your ship, we need to be fight effectively despite only having room in our vehicle for four others along with me and my twin."

Arlas simply stared at the more volatile twin, but the softer twin had no intention of letting them turn the brief into a fight or dominance spat. "We have enough people for the job at hand, and if we need more the Normandy will land to provide them, or we can take them in your lander. The mission is not so complex that we can't bring them up to speed before departing."

After a moment Arlas nodded, and Joannis continued. "The next mission is in the Macedon system of the Artemis Tau cluster. We got a call from the Citadel as we were finishing our sweep for the geth on Therum. An asari diplomat named Nassana Dantius used her connections, and discovered we were headed to the cluster, and got our contact details. Apparently, she had an estranged sister was in the area, and her ship was hit by pirates, who kidnapped her and demanded a ransom from her."

She paused as Ashley gestured for permission to speak. "Begging your pardon ma'am, but isn't this C-Sec and the Asari Republics' problem? We should be hunting Saren, not rescuing every asari that gets a hangnail or hunting down every criminal with a gun."

Jaclyn snorted in amusement and nodded. "Good point, but the problem with that is that we have no further leads on Saren currently. Dr T'soni was a dead end, though denying him her expertise and getting it ourselves is a good start. The Salarian Task Group, Spectres, and Systems Alliance Intelligence have no further leads for us, and if the species specific intelligence agencies have heard anything, they haven't bothered to spread the news. So we are currently at an impasse, and this will only cause four days divergence from an optimal route back. Besides, earning the goodwill of a high ranking asari diplomat can really only be a good thing."

Ashley gave a reluctant nod, before leaning back in her chair. Joannis waited a moment, before continuing. "Now, we did some research, and while you are quite right, Ashley, in that C-Sec would normally handle something like this, in this case our contact erred, and paid the ransom. However, the pirates didn't release the hostage, and instead made another demand. Since C-Sec procedures include not paying hostage takers, she couldn't go to C-Sec without causing herself to be censured. We did some background checks, and there is a known pirate gang operating somewhere in the area, and have been for at least half a year."

The Twins went over what little was known, and had the group start preparing their weapons, but the Twins did mention that the planet was not inhabitable, and asked Arlas to prepare his weapons appropriately, which meant to not bring the melty gun. They didn't want the hostage dying because he got trigger happy and blew out one side of the base. Not that he was going to listen, but they had asked.

A couple hours later and a few more lurches, he was working on one of the pulse laser for the lander when he heard the ship system. "Specialist team members Icivia, Kaidan, Ashley, and Arlas to the briefing room. Icivia, Kaidan, Ashley, and Arlas to the briefing room."

Arlas was up to his elbows in the laser, and swore into his helmet, before pulling one arm free and activating his omnitool. It took a couple tries, but he quickly opened a line to the Twins. "Arlas, doing some repairs to the lander. Will be a bit late."

After a second, no doubt the Twins were sharing a look, he heard the door to the room they were in open, and they replied. "Just leave the line open, we are leaving in fifteen minutes anyway."

The door could be heard again, with the two human soldier's voices in the background, and the briefing started. He didn't bother listening, too focused on ensuring the pulse laser was realigned properly, but that only took a couple minutes to fix, and then a few more to reseal the compartment in the wing. Finished with the repairs, he listened to the briefing, leaning against the wing. It was fairly dull, going over the single prefabricated habitat that the pirates used as a main base, with a couple small ships nearby, barely big enough to threaten a fighter in his opinion. Once again, the diminutive nature of the local's ships made him shake his head, and they talked like those ships were impressive. God and Goddesses knew what they would think when the fleet arrived, with its ten kilometer long battleships and eight kilometer long carriers, or Crone forbid, the craftworld itself, in its three hundred kilometer long splendor.

They would drop in the armored personnel carrier, and proceed to the base, wipe out the external security and then clear out the interior while the Normandy landed and secured the two large fighters and the freighter the pirates had. They expected no more than twenty individuals total, including the single hostage. He ignored the rest of the briefing as the Twins went over it in exhaustive detail, rather than simply trusting their warriors to do their jobs with only minimal instruction. Barring adaptive guidance from the leading Farseer as the situation went fluid, of course.

He grabbed his fusion gun, long rifle, blade and pistol, before heading to wait at the human's lander. A few minutes later, the rest of the ground team assembled, and started to climb in, until Jaclyn glanced at the eldar. She frowned, before moving toward him. "Is that the melty gun?"

He used his normal monotone voice, though the prank was starting to wear thin for him. "Fusion gun. But you are correct."

She crossed her arms, and glared up at him. "I know we told you not to bring it, because we don't want to drag a hostage back to the Citadel in a body bag after you blow out a side of the building."

Arlas stepped around her, heading for the back entrance of the APC and his seat. "Then the body may languish here."

He heard someone hissing their displeasure behind him, but he took his seat with only a pause to glare at the physical straps. Tied down like some mon-keigh cargo. He couldn't help the snort of distaste. "How typically mon-keigh."

He had thought he had been quiet, but the angry twin was close enough to hear him and rounded on him. "Call us monkeys one more time and I am throwing you out the damn airlock!"

Arlas realized he might have been using the word more than was wise, considering he was on a tiny ship in proximity with almost three dozen xenos. However, the word didn't seem to be the problem, but a similar one in her own language. One he still had no context for. "I did not call you or anyone a monkey. I said mon-keigh. But now that you have said something, what is a monkey?"

She paused, and glared at him, before a cough in the pilot seat caused her to relent. "What does mon-keigh mean?"

"What is a monkey?"

She swore at him, before passing him to gunner's position, and sitting at the turret. Kaidan was sitting at the third seat, going over several screens, leaving him in the back with Icivia and Ashley. He turned to Ashley. "What is a monkey?"

She gave him a cheeky grin. "What does mon-keigh mean?"

A sigh preceded his explanation. "Depends on the usage, the speaker, and the recipient, but the most common meaning is 'being of a species to be exterminated.' Less common meanings, in order of most to least, include 'one who is mentally stunted,' 'primitive,' 'unwanted illegitimate offspring of an unwed _nicassar_ female, 'and finally 'species that are not Eldar.' Though it can be used in ways to lessen the impact, such as a warning to a child or brash comrade or a humorous insult."

Ashley's eyes had gone wide, and then narrowed. "And which have you been using it as?"

He simply sent his amusement to the entire group, before finishing strapping himself in, and leaning back. "What is a monkey?"

Her reply had to wait, as Joannis abruptly flung the transport out the back of the frigate, and Jaclyn typed away at her omnitool. As the noise and shuddering abated, Jaclyn finished, and turned her seat to him. "You didn't answer the question."

He noted everyone else suddenly checking their omnitools, but when glanced at his, he failed to see anything. "Why do you ask a question to which you already know the answer?"

The twin glared at him, before turning back to the console, ignoring him. He noted the twin in the driver seat finishing another message, but this time no one reacted. Arlas glanced at the humans, before sighing. "Well, what is a monkey?"

He didn't get an answer, only a feeling of grim satisfaction from everyone in the transport, before suddenly the thrusters cut in. A moment later they bounced rather hard, and he swore to himself as the transport skidded to a stop. "Never again. Next time I am bringing my sub-craft."

Rather than repeat himself, he leaned back, and brought up his omnitool. After a second, Kaidan leaned over, and tapped something on the controls, and suddenly Arlas' omnitool beeped an error. "Kaidan to Joker, commander wants all communications to go through them for the rest of the mission, over."

Arlas turned and stared at the human male, before chuckling softly. "Well played, humans, well played."

Everyone but Joannis turned and gawked at him, as he had finally dropped his monotone. "What? You thought that was my real way of speaking?"

He issued another chuckle, before leaning back and getting comfortable. A difficult thing, as the mako lurched and bounced over every crack and tiny rock, each one making him renew his oath to use the Vyper next time. Twice they stopped so the Twins could jump out, but they simply dropped a glowing marker by some metal deposits, likely to be picked up later. The craftworld had smaller ships ranging out to do the same.

The journey took nearly a half hour for the human APC to make it to the area immediately around the base, where they stopped. Kaidan stayed in the APC to monitor his displays, while everyone else climbed up the nearby hill to look at the base. Fine silica dust, driven by the high winds, lashed at the team as they stared down at the pirate base, ensuring it was as the scans had detected it. The Twins started talking with Ashley, but Icivia watched as Arlas pulled out his rifle, dropped to a crouch, and aimed at the base. "What are you doing?"

Arlas ignored her, simply counting as he aimed at each of the six pirates outside on patrol, two in sniper towers that offered elevated nests for them to observe the surrounding area, while the other four stood out of the wind, one in the lee of a tower, the other near the door, another near the edge of the habitat, and the last loitering near one of the fighters they used. After aiming at each one three times, he sent to the Twins. * _I can clear the hostiles outside before they get an alert off._ *

That announcement got everyone's attention, and they stared at him for a moment, before the Twins nodded. "Fine, do it. Everyone else-"

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off as Arlas stood, the last target already falling to the ground. * _Done. Might I suggest moving faster?_ *

Icivia just stared down at the base, and everyone quickly joined her to look at the six guards now lying or draped across the ground or their nests. After a second, the Twins shook themselves out of their shock. "Everyone, Mako, now."

It took less than a minute to get back into the Mako and down into the camp. Jaclyn sent a message to the Normandy that the exterior of the base was clear, and they could come down to start securing the site. They all jumped out, and Kaidan got to work bypassing the alarms and any traps on the door, and getting it to open. While they waited, all the women wandered over to the nearby corpse of a guard, a turian now missing most of his head and helmet courtesy of a shot from the eldar's long rifle.

It was a grisly sight, bits of blood, bone, brain and gristle splattered about the corpse, sticking to the turian's armor and the wall behind him. For Arlas, the damage was as it should be, though he was surprised the helmet had exploded; he had slotted the shot through the turian's visor which should have shattered the visor, not the whole helm. But the rest of the group was looking at the damage with a kind of horrified fascination he saw most often in mon-keigh civilians examining a corpse, not supposedly hardened military operatives. "What is surprising about the body?"

Ashley glanced back, and shook her head. "I thought that was a laser weapon, not a high caliber rifle. But this damage is making me think otherwise, except for the lack of evidence of a shot. Specifically a hole in the wall behind the body."

He smirked, sent amusement. "This is a laser weapon, yes."

Ashley's confusion was apparent even without the light reading he usually used to determine what the more exotic races were feeling. "Huh, I was expecting a small burn mark, maybe with a hole in the center."

He actually laughed. "That is remarkably naive, and ignorant of the truth of laser weapons."

He paused to wind her up, but before anyone exploded, he resumed. "Lasers work by delivering a massive burst of heat energy to the target. The one thing that all life my people have discovered has in common is that it is at least forty percent water, stored in small sacks in the body. When the laser hits the target, all that heat gets added into the body, the water erupts into steam, which requires approximately fifteen hundred times the space as the water used to need. Bone is only somewhat resistant to the sudden heating, but the sudden heating is still too much for most species. Hence, you get a fairly large wound, with considerable gore and damage."

He gestured to the bodies around the pirate's base, before nodding to the entrance. "Would you like me to scout the insides? I can do that while we-"

Alenko suddenly spoke. "Got the door, sorry about the wait, remarkably good security here. Must be what the pirates are spending Nassana's money on."

Arlas turned back to the Twins, and waited for them to start leading again. The Twins shared another look, and gave him another tingle of low level psyker energies being used (something that was driving him mad as he could not get a sense that they were even latent psykers at any other time), before turning to him. Joannis didn't sound enthusiastic about his offer. "Are you completely sure you can get in, secure the hostage, NOT blow out a wall, and hold the location until we get in and clear the pirates?"

He started to offer a pithy response, realized they were going to give him what he wanted, and quickly came up with a different answer. "I believe I would be more useful doing that than trying to fight with the rest of you. I am a forward scout, not a front line combatant."

She sighed, before nodding. "Fine, we'll wait in the entry room. Contact us if you find the hostage or they find you."

He smirked behind his helm, before following everyone into the airlock. Once they were through the airlock and into the first room, he moved away from the group, and empowered his cloak, before warp jumping through, REALLY hoping no one had shoved anything against the other side of the door or was looking at it.

He landed on the side without losing any pieces or gaining any attention, and relaxed. * _Jumped safely, reconnoitering now._ *

The chamber was a Crone damned mess. Crates and cargo boxes strewn haphazardly about the room. He could see a balcony overlooking the room, and a couple doors on the far side of the habitat, one on his level, one above. A few slow movements got him high enough to look around, and he began reporting what he saw to the ground. * _Room is full of scattered cover, half height, full height and ceiling height, multiple paths through, ware flankers. Two back rooms, no angles, doors closed, might contain hostage or pirate leaders. Eight, no ten, pirates, one asari, two krogan, three turians, one salarian, three human. Asari on second floor balcony, both krogan on the ground floor. Two snipers on balcony. Moving to find target._ *

He took his time moving around the room, having to be careful to avoid moving so fast the cloak changed settings from concealment to distortion and sticking to the sides of the room. The journey still took a few minutes to carefully move around the room, though he was being careful because he wasn't sure if anyone had an x-ray or thermal mod on their helmet. Such equipment was rare back home, but very annoying to discover, when it wasn't nearly lethal. He reported to the twins his status once he was in position and waiting for the door; a minute later one of the turians stalked into the room. He took a quick look inside, ready to dive in and get started, but all that was in the room was a set of bunks and lockers.

He frowned, before reporting. * _Three more pirates, all humanish. Lower floor back room is lockers and sleeping quarters, more than a dozen beds. Moving to top floor._ *

He only had to avoid one person on the narrow staircase, so the trip only took a moment to get to the top floor. A quick look around showed both snipers sitting on crates, idly chatting as they cleaned their rifles, and a single turian leaned on the railing. The asari was walking toward the second floor room while looking over the balcony, and he hastened to stay ahead of her, taking a risk of the mon-keigh spotting the fluttering of his cloak as it tried to conceal him. He managed to get into the room before the asari, and frowned.

This room was clearly the leader's room, containing a desk, private computer, armor stand, locker, a storage compartment, and a single bed, larger and more decadent than the barely functional ones below. He watched the asari lock the door, and then she stretched, and set her weapon the desk, before stripping the light armor plating off her skin tight bodysuit and putting it on the stand. He rolled his eyes in his helmet, deciding to NOT tell the group the details of this incident. Last thing he needed was the nickname voyeur, or pervert, or whatever. * _Second floor room is the leader's room, the asari. No other asari in the base. I will capture the leader and ensure her survival while you kill the rest out._ *

He glanced at the locked door, before stalking forward, ignoring the idle thought that he needed a weapon for non-lethal takedowns. Singer had tried to offer one, but he hadn't expected to need it. He took a moment to get behind the asari tapping away at her omnitool at the desk, more interested in whatever she was doing than on her surroundings. A quick strike later, she was unconscious on the desk, and he was cleaning the a small purple-ish blue blood stain off his rifle stock. * _Pirate leader down and room secure. Attack when ready._ *

He then pulled his mental senses back, and waited. While he could monitor the fight with them, it left him in danger of being attacked by warp creatures drawn by the slaughter back home, or worse being stunned as whoever he was watching died, and the link tried to drag him with them. However, issues such as those were not really an issue since the warp was so quiet and still here. So he had no idea how well the fight was going, other than the noises coming from the pirate leader's omnitool and someone beating against the door for a moment.

Ten minutes after he told them to go, he heard the door chime as it unlocked, and he leveled his long rifle at the door. His caution was unneeded, as Ghost stepped through the door. He lowered the rifle, and pulled the asari from her chair, throwing her over his shoulder before heading for the exit. "Where did they want their prisoner?"

Ghost did a double take at the prisoner, before glancing at the armor on the stand, and then laughed. The turian took a moment for her to get herself under control before she took the prisoner and secured her wrists with some glowing bonds from her omnitool. She then pulled a device off her hip, and snapped it into place against the base of the asari's skull. Ghost then put a mask on the asari's face, and carried her out, still chuckling to herself.

Arlas watched with a shrug, and almost made it to the door when he heard Ghost call out to the rest. "Apparently Arlas has an asari, dominance, and kidnapping fetish. Stripped her down to her undersuit, and was carrying her out on his shoulder like a barbarian."

He froze, as the rest of the group laughed, and Ashley made a comment he didn't catch through the sudden surge of barely controlled bloodlust. Instead, he took a deep breath, pulled out his sword, and went turian hunting. Perhaps butchering her would improve his mood.

 _A/N - The upgrade poll is now closed, and a new one is up. Go take a gander, and let me know what your thoughts are._

 _Also, send in questions for a intermission chapter I am setting up, called 'ask Arlas.' If you ever had a burning question for an Eldar, I will answer it. Some of the questions might even be added to the actual story._


	12. Revenge and Diplomacy

**Chapter 12 - Revenge and Diplomacy**

 _A/N - This story will have some fleshing out of the Eldar in ways that are likely non-canon. These are relevant only to the Ae'Imedra Craftworld._

 _Also, WTF is up with the 'suggested' populations? The council clearly states that they won't do anything about the reapers as they can't find evidence, and don't take you (Shepard) seriously because 'the Council's decisions affect trillions of lives across the galaxy, and they cannot act on the say-so of a single person, even a Spectre, without evidence," end quote. But 17 million quarians is somehow a problem enough that the quarians use parking in a system as a serious threat. Srsly, WTF? GAH! This is why I do AUs, lets me 'fix' problems like this. Though perhaps the systems don't want fifty thousand ships loitering about..._

 _Sorry about the rant, was doing population research, and noted that there was no 'hard number' of Citadel aligned sentients, and only the above quote to give a max range. So gonna just give it a hard number of… 2.5 trillion. Yeah, sounds right. If anyone DOES find something, let me know so I can start tweaking numbers._

 _Finally, Krogan blademaster Fel used with permission from author 5th Legion. Seriously, go read his story Project Delta. A bit dark, violent, gory, and sometimes depressing but an amazing AU pre-ME fic. Seriously, go read it._

" _For the Greater Good" - Tau battlecry_

A week later, Ghost was still alive and remained uninjured by the Eldar at least, all three Spectres had interrogated the pirate and were currently plotting bloody, messy revenge on Nassana Dantius for trying to use them, while Arlas ignored the crew for the most part. The ship was nearly back at the Citadel to drop off the prisoner and deal with Nassana, but that left the Eldar with little to do other than try to do research on the omnitool, which was now giving a remarkable number 'access denied,' 'classified information,' or 'restricted/redacted' errors, repair or maintain his equipment or practice his various skills.

He was currently doing sword routines in the hangar bay, in an area he had set up as a sparring arena, focusing mostly on his right arm as his left got no benefit from exercises with it. Arlas had nearly put two crew members into the medical bay missing pieces, but at least now the crew knew to avoid the area when he was in it. The only person down in the bay with him was Wrex, working on the armory bench with his shotgun in pieces though most of his attention was on the flowing Eldar in the center of the bay. After watching a particularly flowing series of blocks, dodges and counter thrusts at imaginary opponents, Wrex chuckled. "Eldar, you are something else. When I first saw you in that meeting, I thought you would fall apart under a nice, friendly breeze. Then you go and threaten me when I slam you against the wall, proving you got a quad, if maybe lacking a brain. Then that you prove you can hold your own in fight on Therum. Big guns and lots of collateral damage don't hurt either.

And your skill with the blade is something else. Reminds me a bit of Raik Fel, an old acquaintance of mine from a couple centuries back. Most krogan go for shotguns and use hammers, fists, or our plates for melee, but he was a blademaster. You might learn a thing from him, and him from you. Assuming you can get him to shut up long enough."

Arlas was in his scorpion tunic and under suit, witchblade weaving around him, but he did not immediately reply to the krogan. Despite having only known of the krogan for a bit less than three weeks, he did have some understanding with him. And Wrex knew the Eldar had a strong preference to focusing fully on something, finishing it, and then moving onto something else. A minute later, he finished the last 'opponent' with a leg sweep and rising slash of the blade, which would have cut his opponent's head off, and turned to the krogan. "And why do you think that I would enjoy meeting another krogan? I seem to recall you slamming me into a wall before starting to become more friendly with me."

"That is because you were being stupid. I educated you, and now, you aren't stupid. As much. Besides, last I heard Fel was the galactic swordmanship champion or whatever the title was, and had held it for fifty some odd years straight, and had more than four hundred total years as the blade champion of the known galaxy."

"And that is supposed to impress me how? All the others I have met sneered at the thought of a sword on the battlefield, until they learned I could teleport. And yet my people have five different aspect shrines dedicated to close combat troops. I spent almost two centuries in two different shrines, learning the arts of melee combat."

Wrex snorted, ignoring the sound of the elevator rumbling down to their level. "Five different ways of fighting in melee with blades? Sounds overly complicated. Just need one, hit them harder."

"You sound like an ork. I suspected you were related due to the similarity in difficulty in putting down krogan, but I thought your kind were at least smarter. Alas, I overestimated you."

Wtex glanced up from the bench, one eye staring directly at the Eldar. "What is an orc?"

Arlas was saved from having to answer as the ship suddenly rocked slightly, and the pilot spoke over the ship wide comm system. "Ship now secured. Welcome to the Citadel everyone, please make sure your tray tables are in their upright and locked positions. We thank you for choosing Systems Alliance Spacelines for your astronautical travel needs, and mock you mercilessly for thinking you had a choice in the matter. Have a nice day."

Arlas rolled his eyes at the pilot's antics, before heading for his armor and weapons, even as he responded to Wrex. "A conversation for another time. The aggressive twin is leaving soon, and I wish to watch her twist the liar's arm."

A few minutes later, he was dressed, armed, and waiting by the airlock for the Twins, idly reviewing everyone's plans. Garrus, Icivia, Liara and Joannis were turning the asari pirate leader over to C-Sec, as well as all the evidence they had gathered at the base, before checking C-Sec requisitions office and armory for more advanced weapons and armor for their crew. Ashley, Kaidan, and Tali were heading to the Ward markets to pick up supplies. And Jaclyn was taking Wrex and himself to confront Nassana Dantius. They left after Jaclyn received a message from her, telling her to meet them at the Presidium Diplomatic Lounge.

It was a bit of walk to the building where Nassana claimed she was, and Arlas couldn't help but notice most of the people they passed stared at them like they had never seen anything like the group before. Arlas took a few minutes to figure out why, after passing another group of C-Sec who stopped and waved their omnitools at the group, before moving on; it was the fact they were all in armor and carrying weapons. Most of the people he could see wore pointlessly luxurious, frivolous, or minimalistic clothing, and he could only spot handguns on most of the C-Sec. It would be stupidly easy to do a significant amount of damage before a real security unit arrived. He sent a mental note of his observation to Yol'Pvera, in case it became necessary for his people to bring force against the station.

Jaclyn entered a building that looked nearly identical to the others around it, other than a tiny sign near the door proclaiming it a lounge. Arlas stepped in last, Jaclyn already talking to Nassana, inside a private room beside the exit. "-crap, Ms. Dantius, you lied. Not to one Spectre, which is enough to get you shot, but three Spectres. So unless you have something a little more impressive than a pittance of credits, C-Sec is about to get a priority message from me."

The asari stared at the Spectre before nodding. "Fair enough. I have something much better. In exchange for your files and silence, I can put you and the other two spectres on the exclusive clientele list of Armili Industries. Deal?"

Jaclyn stared grimly, before nodding and smiling. "Done."

The human transferred her files over. "These are the only copies I have."

Nassana looked over the files, her face going from light blue to nearly white as she saw everything the Spectre had gotten, before nodding and tapping a few keys and then waving her omnitool at the human. "And done. You are now all on the list. I hope, Spectre, that we don't do business again."

"Same."

With that, the newest Spectre turned and stalked out of the room, taking her two escorts with her. A quick gesture prevented Wrex from saying anything, until they were outside the lounge and heading back to C-Sec. "Alright Wrex, now you can."

Wrex, instead of speaking to Jaclyn, turned to Arlas. "What's an orc?"

Jaclyn turned stare at Wrex incredulously for a second, then at Arlas, before laughing. "Wait, orcs? As in, green-skinned brutes with tusks?"

Arlas sent confusion, wondering how she knew that. "You forgot two and a half meters tall, biceps as thick as Wrex's thigh, wielding an axe in one hand capable of shearing through light vehicle armor, and carrying a sidearm that fires ten centimeter thick rocket propelled armor piercing grenades. Also even harder to kill than a krogan, as I personally took an arm, leg, and half the head off one ork, and it kept trying to kill me. For that matter, I am not entirely sure I actually did kill it."

Arlas frowned as he contemplated that he might have never finished off the ork, but figured that it was no longer his problem. Not like the ork could follow him across a tenth of the galaxy, through the webway across another fifth of the galaxy, and then through the abandoned webway Elisphan to this alternate universe or timeline or whatever. He dismissed the thought, and noted both of his allies staring at him. "What? All that is fairly normal for an ork."

Wrex just started laughing. "Now I want to have a go at one. That sounds like one hell of a fight, worthy of an epic battle hymn."

Arlas snorted. "Considering they move in hordes of thousands at a minimum, if not considerably more, I think you would have found fighting orks a vigorous but short exercise, before an ork mounted your head on a pointy stick as a trophy. The more intense the fighting, the more they enjoy it."

He glanced at Wrex, before shaking his head and keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself. "No, later. I will tell you later."

Jaclyn looked incredulous, before shaking her head and leading the way back to C-Sec. A few minutes later, they entered C-Sec, and found Joannis by herself, staring out the window at the docking bays of the Presidium. Jaclyn took a quick look around, before dismissing both Wrex and Arlas, and heading toward her sister. Wrex immediately headed toward the elevator leading to the ship, but Arlas headed toward the Twins. He wanted to see if he could confirm they were actually psykers like he suspected. Sadly, this time he didn't get to sense anything, as other than a touch the nonverbal conversation was short. Jaclyn touched her sister's elbow, before bumping her shoulder against her twin's. "What is it?"

Joannis sighed, before rubbing her forehead, taking a moment before replying. "Anderson called. Jenkins is dead."

Jaclyn didn't respond immediately, other than a flicker of emotion across her mind. Eventually, she asked, "How? He was still breathing when he went to the hospital ship."

"Brain dead, no neurological functions other than absolute minimums and automatic reflexes. Parents and his siblings visited him a week ago, said goodbye, cut life support. They sent a message thanking me for trying to save their son. Rest of his family survived Saren's attack."

Arlas shook his head, before turning to head to the ship, spotting a C-Sec patrol leaving. However, he only got a few steps before Joannis turned. "Arlas, a moment."

He actually considered just continuing onward, but after a second dismissed the thought. She was the ship mistress, and he still needed more information about the races. So far what he knew of the local xenos was… lacking, and he was not going to annoy the one person that was willing to let him openly travel on her ship, doing research and training on his own. So he stopped, and turned to the humans, noting with amusement that while he might have more respect for the krogan than anyone else on board, if only because he was consistently predictable and dependable, the humans were the ones he could, and had to, rely on the most. The Crone Goddess was no doubt laughing at the irony here.

"The asari councilor has requested a private meeting with you at the Consort's academy. She said it was completely voluntary, and it would be a private, informal affair with only herself and an observer. No guards, and no questions about your technology level or military strengths. She requested you bring only your pistol and sword."

He actually harrumphed at the last bit, remembering the original meeting with the councilors. The turian and salarian had both been fairly obvious in their attempts to try and pry some kind of advantage out of him, though he wasn't sure what the asari was trying to get. But at least she pretended to be interested in peace, as opposed to the other two who couldn't even do that much. But more importantly than the veiled and probably intended insults to his intelligence, he also remembered his mission, and the unspoken job of the outcasts and pathfinders.

 _He was to scout the host's way. And a pathfinder was to ease the craftworld's way._

While that meant he was to see what was there so as to assist the craftworld in avoiding disasters, as a pathfinder it also meant he needed to do what he could to smooth things over. And having a… tentative ally already in place in a position of actual power, in addition to the humans, would only be a good thing. Probably. So despite what he had been thinking, he could only agree to a more… amiable attempt at a first contact. "I will meet her. When and do I get a guide?"

Joannis nodded. "Icivia will guide you, and tomorrow. We will let you know before hand so you can prepare."

Arlas nodded, before turning to the elevator. He needed to rest after that conversation, and some meditation and a small meal wouldn't go awry. As the elevator, he glared at the krogan casually leaning against the controls, who was grinning at him. The Eldar entered the elevator, and groaned as Wrex pushed the button, coming up with him. "So, what else have you fought? And where? Sounds interesting, might want to get in on the action myself."

"I said later Wrex."

"It IS later. Talk."

The Eldar just sighed, wondering why he wasn't getting any respect from anyone. Clearly, it was because he was a terrible Eldar. Or the Crone, and possibly the twin gods of Chance and Fate, were playing with him. Or, maybe all three...

* * *

Arlas ignored the glare that Ghost was giving him, as well as what she was saying. "I know that message said pistol and sword only."

She was supposed to be leading him, but he knew where he was going. Carrying his long rifle and sword, clad in his armor and wearing his warlock tabard over that instead of his cameleoline cloak, he strode with confidence toward a place called the Consort's Academy. Arlas wasn't sure what it was, though apparently the Consort was some sort of spirit and mind healer, from what he had learned. No doubt the spiritseers, warlocks, and farseers would be fascinated by whatever disturbingly barbaric techniques these mon-keigh had that mirrored some of the Eldar leader's duties. The only thing he didn't know was the time, but Icivia had come to guide him, so he figured it would be soon.

"Ignoring someone is neither responsible or mature."

Or perhaps come to nag at him, he was honestly beginning to question which. Still, it was only a couple kilometers from the ship to the academy, and he could put up with her for that long.

"Ignoring a Spectre isn't very smart either."

Or he could just sprint, leaving her behind. Or just warp jump there, he was trained after all, and the warp was so calm here, he suspected he could perform a half dozen jumps before he had a chance of misjumping and vanishing permanently. He frowned, and idly spun up the warp jump generator in his backpack, getting a feel for the ripples it caused in the local immaterium, before letting it spin back down.

"I will call ahead and have the guards evacuate the councilor."

Arlas sighed, before rounding on the turian Spectre, mentally sneering at the name. They were not Spectres, no matter how they played with their languages to get the name. "You babble like wasted water and are equally informative. What?"

The turian narrowed her eyes and spread her mandibles wide, causing the Eldar to restrain a reflexive draw of his sword; the action reminded him of far too many tyranid bioforms. "You are going to meet one of the councilors in an informal meeting. You going to do it in one of the most respected establishments on the Citadel, the heart of galactic civilization and **stop ignoring me**!"

Arlas had turned and started walking away, this time not even bothering to look back over his shoulder. "You speak on things you have no knowledge of, and are equally ignorant of your ignorance. Evolution provided you with a brain. A pity most of your kind seems to only use it to keep their skulls from collapsing inwards."

He spun up his warp jump generator, and vanished in a swirl of warp lightning and nothingness, reappearing a couple hundred meters distant amid cries of shock and surprise, only to vanish in a second one. He completed three jumps before he finished, now across a small lake, and glanced back at the distant form of Ghost as he resumed walking. Less than a minute later, he was outside the destination, a featureless building near the end of the path. A quick check of his map, and he walked inside, curious as to what he would find.

He was not expecting to find a den worthy of a cult of Slaanesh.

Or at least, that was his first impression. His hands twitched for his weapons, as his mind instinctively reached out to his surroundings, trying to understand how he could have blunder into a cultist nest without feeling it, before he stopped, taking in the more subtle details of his surroundings.

The first thing he noted was while the interior was certainly as soft and alluring as it could be, there was an air of sophistication the cultists usually lacked, a notion reinforced as he took in the individuals inside. While very flattering and revealing, or so he assumed, the asari's garments were not gaudy, minimal, or revealing enough. In fact, as he took another look, a couple asari wore dresses that actually wouldn't have looked out of place in the craftworld, and a human female was also present, wearing a similar dress, though of lesser quality than what any Eldar would be caught dead in. The second thing that made him relax was the ambient warp energies weren't correct for a den of those that followed 'She Who Thirsts,' and while there was accumulated psyker energies here, they weren't tied to mindless hedonistic lust, and it didn't seem a deliberate attempt to build up the energies.

He considered his options for a moment, let himself relax, and pulled off his helmet, before clipping it to his thigh, and fully entering the room. The Eldar ignored the sudden staring from the dozen asari in the room, and the four other individuals from various races in the room, as he approached the nearest asari, standing behind a small podium and wearing one of the more moderate outfits in the room. He wasn't sure of the functionality of the asari showing off abdomen, but maybe some of the other xeno races were relaxed by it. She gave him a small but surprisingly sincere smile, and a tiny bow that actually he recognized, though the stance was a bit strange, like a strong accent. ( _Respectful but not admitting to being subservient, superior, or peer)_. "Welcome to the Consort's Chambers. I am acolyte Nelyna. Do you have or wish to schedule an appointment? Or do you desire something else?"

Arlas shifted his stance a bit, seeing how she reacted to someone speaking the nonverbal portions of the Eldar language, and gave a perfectly calculated nod. ( _Unaffiliated superior, respectful greeting)_. "Pathfinder Arlas of the Eldar, here to meet with the asari Councilor Tevos. I believe I am expected."

He watched her eyes flicker over the weapons, and her stance shifted ( _confusion, slight alarm_ ), and then she smiled and nodded. "She is currently meeting the Consort, but if you would care to sit, I will inform her that you are here."

She gestured to a seat to the side, a single elegant movement of her arm ( _languid command_ ), as her eyes tracked him ( _concerned alarm_ ) and brought her other hand up to her ear. He moved to the indicated area, and dropped into an easy kneeling position, ready to rise, roll or dive in any direction he needed. It had been interesting, but the longer he had conversed, the less their nonverbal communications had aligned. It might even had been pure chance the first was appropriate, if not wishful thinking on his part; something he would have to warn his kin about when he met again with them.

Arlas sat for only a short while, before the greeter got his attention. "Thank you for your patience sir. They will see you immediately. Acolyte Ty'Rah will see you to their room."

He glanced at an approaching asari, clad in one of the more modest gowns, who gave him a slight bow, before turning to lead the way. He followed behind her, memorizing the slightly winding path through the building, which went surprisingly far into the wall. Eventually his guide stopped in front of one door, identical to the others in the hallway, before tapping the hologram on the door. After a second, it slid open, and Ty'Rah gave him a small bow, before heading back down the hallway toward the entry room. Arlas shrugged, and stepped into the room.

The Eldar was expecting some soft, plush room, meant to emphasize the sophisticate air and softness the rest of the building had presented. He was not expecting to find a gym and a large open area for sparring. He also wasn't expecting to find a pair of asari in the middle of the sparring area, wielding blades of orange light. He recognized Councilor Tevos from the trial and interrogation afterwards, dark blue flesh, white facial markings and hazel eyes, somewhat visible muscles but clearly a civilian from her build, wielding a single thin blade as long as her arm. The other asari must have been this Consort he had been told about, her pale blue flesh, a handful of barely visible freckles near her sapphire eyes, wielding a pair of blades, a short sword in one hand, and a short dagger in the other. Her body was a contradiction, extremely generous curves on the body of a dancer. Both wore simple halter tops and shorts, tan in color, as they sparred, weaving, shifting, and striking.

He stayed clear of the sparring area, it was the height of disrespect to wander through one in use in an aspect shrine of the craftworld, but simply watched, gauging their skill level. After the Councilor got swept off her feet by the Consort and then took a dagger to the chest, causing the blade to shatter into motes of rapidly vanishing lights, Arlas concluded they had some skill, but didn't follow a path of the blade. As he waited and watched, Tevos stood, shaking her head at the other asari. "I still think the single blade is just as viable as a dual blade style."

He quickly realized that he was about to have to listen to a debate about sword styles that would only make a bit of sense to him, so Arlas coughed. The Consort's head snapped around at the unexpected sound, but Councilor Tevos actually jumped before she whirled toward him. Both asari stared at him, and after a moment, he simply raised an eyebrow. "I believe we were supposed to talk?"

Tevos flushed a deep shade of purple, clearly trying to rally herself after his unexpected ambush, and the Consort simply smiled softly. "True, and I do apologize. It was simply startling how closely you resemble ourselves, and especially humans."

Arlas simply shrugged. "Coincidence of evolution, I suspect, though my people were modified from our original forms. And I will answer questions later. But first, your message said there were to be no guards, and just us."

Tevos glanced down and to his left, before transferring her gaze to his right shoulder. "I also requested no weapons other than your sword and pistol. Is that a sniper rifle?"

He gave a nod, before pulling it over his shoulder. "Long rifle, but yes. It fulfills a similar roles to that weapon. So anyone else in the room armed is not supposed to be here, and can be… assisted to vacate the room?"

Both asari blinked in confusion, before looking around the room. Arlas' head slowly turned to one of the far corners, and he simply stared at the empty corner. Both asari looked from him, to the corner, and then back, before the Consort spoke. "There is no one there… I just realized we were never introduced. I am the Consort Sha'ira, what may I address you as?"

He didn't turn his head, instead bringing the rifle up and pulling the trigger. A soft splat sounded from the corner as the invisible bolt hit something, splattering blood and viscera about, and something collapsed with a thud. A second later, a dark grey, brown, and green armored salarian, sans a portion of his upper torso sudden faded into view with a buzzing noise, and Arlas turned to a different corner. "You may take your dead and leave. Now. All of you. Or join that one."

Both asari jerked in shock at the sudden death, then Tevos' face darkened and her expression tightened, before she regained control of herself. "STG operatives, out, now."

The room was still for a moment, before two salarians suddenly faded into view, one in the opposite corner of the dead one, another hanging onto the ceiling. Pausing only long enough to grab their dead comrade, they started to leave, only to pause at the sound of Arlas drawing his sword and swinging it in a quick arc behind him. "You forgot a body."

The two operatives exchanged a look as another body fizzled into view, hidden in their helmets, before one moved to collect the second corpse. Arlas moved away from the body, and waited for the spies to depart, before cleaning his blade with a wisp of warp energy. He hadn't brought a rag, not expecting to need it. "Apologies, I am called Arlas, a Pathfinder of the Eldar Craftworld Ae'Imedra."

Councilor Tevos took a deep breath, and then joined the conversation. "We already met, both at the trial of Saren and the… unfortunate diplomatic meeting afterwards. I do wish to apologize for my fellow councilors' actions on that day. Councilor Sparatus, the turian, takes his duties extremely seriously, and does not respond well to surprises or apparent insubordination. And Councilor Valern…"

She paused, clearly choosing her words extremely carefully, and taking a moment to glance at the blood and viscera in the corner from the first STG operative. "He tends to let himself be distracted and consumed by enthusiasm of new things to discover and learn. Though I expect him to try and leverage your killing of his men into handing over something."

"He already got what he wanted. He gets to examine more corpses of people killed by my weapons. Besides, if they didn't want to be caught, they should have had better equipment. I could easily see where they were."

An Eldar's vision went significantly deeper into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum than any human's and could see colors the other races likely didn't have names for, was something his people had discovered but he didn't mention it. No sense helping the salarians' make a better active camouflage device. Instead, he turned the conversation back to the reason he was there. "You wished to speak with me, Councilor, without your colleagues. I am here."

Tevos' mouth twitched slightly, before turning to a nearby table, and gesturing for him to follow. "Before we do that, would you indulge me? I am something of a blade aficionado and collector, and I noticed you carry one. Would you perhaps allow me and Sha'ira to spar with you with safety blades? For our protection, of course."

Arlas simply stared at the Councilor, ignoring the Consort. He knew exactly what she was doing, appealing to his ego and superiority to give her a chance to prove her own superiority. He also knew it was working exactly as she had planned. "I accept. A blade similar to the one you are using will suffice."

Tevos smiled softly, before pulling a weapon hilt and handguard, similar to the one already in her hand, from a stand next to her, and offered it to him. He looked over the hilt as he moved to one side, noting a button that activated the orange blade when pressed. He pushed it again, and frowned when the blade did not deactivate. He thought for a moment before pushing and holding the button which did nothing, and then tapping the button twice, finally deactivating the blade. He placed the holoblade on the table, and began stripping off his armor and weapons, placing them on the table, finishing in only his body suit. "Rules of the spar?"

The Consort was watching him quite intently, though her control was good enough to keep him from doing more than guessing what she was thinking. Tevos, on the other hand, was similar enough to humans he could easily guess where her mind was; firmly controlled by her lusts, and took a moment to regain control of herself. "Oh, no killing or maiming moves, and minimal physical contact. And try to not damage us, please. Bruises would be hard to explain to our acolytes and guards."

Sha'ira gave a soft chuckle at the last comment, as Arlas stepped onto the sparring mat, and slid into a combat stance. He made a point to keep his expression neutral and motionless, rather than indulging in the urge to grin in bloodlust. These poor aliens had no idea what they were up against.

* * *

Three matches and five minutes later, both of the asari were privately agreeing with his assessment. He had won all three matches, and was refraining from indulging in preening, strutting or being smug. A few minutes later, both asari having taken a moment to go and give themselves a brief cleaning and change, and they were back in the training room. Arlas spoke first. "Educational. And you said you two were only indifferent in your pursuit of bladework?"

Consort Sha'ira nodded from her soft couch, resting against its single arm.. "It is good for exercise and discipline. I also find having a small blade is quite reassuring when I go out, and far less disruptive or conspicuous compared to a pistol."

Councilor Tevos nodded from her lounge chair, selecting pieces of fruit from a small bowl with one hand as she watched the Eldar. "Also good for stress relief, and knowing some form of self defense is always a good idea."

Arlas was kneeling on the ground, and simply stared at the councilor. "You speak as if some disagree. Those that do are foolish, and a drain upon a society. However, you did not arrange for me to meet with a seer and yourself to discuss your people."

The Consort's eyebrow raised, before she gave a small smile. "Seer, that is a new title for me. But my calling is of a consort. I offer guidance, experience, wisdom, and a confidant. Words are my weapons of choice, used to defend others from fears and doubts."

Arlas simply hummed a short note to himself. "Apologies then, consort. You would be closer to a spirit healer of the warlock path of the Eldar then."

His subtle opening was picked up by the councilor. "You mentioned a path? What are those, a type of job or profession?"

"In a way, though for an Eldar it is as much a choice as a declaration of purpose. An Eldar committed to a path will follow it to the exclusion of other paths, unless the path also calls for learning others, like the Autarch and Farseers."

He stopped, but after a gesture from the councilor, explained further. "Autarchs are the leaders of a war host, and must know the paths they lead, so they do not ask of one path a duty of another unless there is no other option. Like asking a ranger squad, who excel at sniping and scouting, to engage in a melee attack on fortifications held by light armored vehicles and heavily armored infantry. Farseers, the leaders of the Craftworld, need to also know the warlock path, so they can defend themselves if they are attacked, and assist others. Some Farseers also follow other paths, like that of the healer, or one of the marital paths."

Both asari listened to his brief explanation, before the Consort nodded. "Fascinating. So the paths are the divisions of your leaders and warriors?"

"No, the paths are our divisions of all Eldar. The paths of the artisan, of the steersman or steerswoman, of the dreamer, of the griever, of the warrior, of the seer, of service and of the outcast are simply the most common and broadest of the paths, most others diverge from those, and all those paths but the dreamer come for the the path of the awakener, undertaken when an Eldar reaches age enough to decide for themselves. I myself followed three paths of the warrior, before moving to the path of the outcast. In time, I will return to the Craftworld, and try another path."

Consort Sha'ira listened, her expression on of fervent attention, devouring every detail she was hearing. "You are an outcast? Tevos mention that you introduced yourself as a pathfinder."

"Pathfinders are exarches of the path of the outcast. Outcasts are simply those that have left the craftworld to wander the worlds and territories of other races, there is no disgrace or stigma to being one. Exarches are the best of a particular path of the warrior, and most exarches are lost upon it, unable to leave the path ever again. Rarely, an exarch will leave their path, but it is almost unheard of. I have been a pathfinder for more than five quarters of a century."

Tevos nodded in understanding. "So the exarches lead a group of warriors, and the autarches lead them, while the farseers lead everyone else. You keep mentioning a craftworld, is that what you call your homeworld?"

"No, but they serve as such now. We created the paths to prevent such a calamity from ever happening again. The craftworlds are world ships that we use to contain our populations. There are many of them, even we are not entirely sure how many, ranging from a few hundred thousand occupants and only twenty kilometers long, to the great Craftworlds of Alaitoc, Biel-tan, or Ulthwé, which are immense in size, and contain billions of Eldar. My own craftworld, Ae'Imedra, is on the smaller end of the craftworlds, a mere three hundred kilometers long, and contains only fifty million Eldar."

Arlas allowed himself to feel amusement as both asari abruptly choked as he mentioned the size of the craftworlds and their inhabitants. Tevos recovered first. "What sort of disaster would cause that many of your people to willingly live on ships, if they can build such large vessels? For that matter, where did they all come from, the known galaxy population is only a handful of trillions, and you just listed three ships that contain at least that many."

Arlas waved off her concerns. "Where we come from isn't important, it is not nearby, and nothing is chasing us. And the other craftworlds are not following. We are coming here on our own. The idea was to rest, recover, and build up here, and then head back. You would only have to tolerate with us being around for about ten thousand years or so."

The two asari looked at each other, Tevos with an incredulous frown, while the Consort seemed more cautiously curious than dismissive. After a moment, Tevos turned back, but her expression was more guarded than before, he suspected it was because she believed he was wasting her time. "A ship three hundred kilometers? I am afraid that would be quite impossible. No ship could move that was that large, nor could it go faster than light."

"Your people's inabilities are not my people's problems. And it used to be much smaller. In the ten thousand years since it housed our people, it has grown significantly. And we don't use whatever your people do. The lurching and shuddering of the ships would eventually drive an Eldar quite mad if we did have to deal with it constantly."

Tevos opened her mouth to ask an obvious question, and then closed it, giving him an amused look. He let himself laugh, before nodding. "Very good, I would not speak of my people's technology. Now, what else would you like to know, that I might be willing to talk about? I am certain you have more."

Tevos considered the question for a moment, and Arlas refilled his glass of water. The Consort continued to simply watch, no doubt observing him and would be adding her analysis about the Eldar. "How about we start exchanging questions?"

Arlas shrugged and then nodded, and returned to his kneeling position, taking a small sip of water while he waited for Tevos to speak, not having any burning questions at the moment. "What can you tell me about your people? I am quite curious as to why you resemble humans so closely."

He gave a sigh of irritation, having answered that question at least a dozen times back on the ship. "I do not look like a human. Humans look like Eldar. My people have recorded history as old as sixty million years past. The human's ancestors had likely not decided yet that crawling was better than swimming. As for why, I have no idea, but my people have been debating and contemplating it since we first met them twelve thousand years ago. Different humans, different area of space."

This time neither asari choked, but both were now staring at him, one with intense neutrality, the other with concealed disdain. Tevos' voice was cold as the deep black of space. "If you would rather not say, do so. Telling falsehoods does not help your cause."

Arlas gave her a flat stare, before standing. "A fine sentiment coming from a mon-keigh of a civilization of less than twenty long cycles, or thousand years. Infants still covered in their birth fluids shouldn't accuse their elders of lying."

His eyes met the asari councilor's, and saw arrogance as unyielding as his own pride. The two of them went to war for a moment, before the Consort softly spoke. "Councilor, we simply do not know enough about the pathfinder and his people to determine if he is… creatively exaggerating, or telling the simple truth. Perhaps we should wait until the actual diplomats and leaders arrive before we decide?"

Tevos relaxed her posture a moment later, but her eyes were just as hard as before. "Perhaps. However, I was wondering if we could get a simple examination of your blade? Surely a species as… old and experienced as you _claim_ would have materials and forging techniques well beyond what we can."

He stared at her for a moment, before standing, drawing and presenting the blade in a single, smooth motion that nevertheless was faster than her eye could follow. Tevos froze as the blade flashed, but relaxed when she saw he was holding both the hilt and the tip, allowing her to view the entirety of the blade. She simply nodded, and activated her omnitool, and ran the device along the weapon three times. After a moment, she glanced at the tool, and stared at the results for a moment, before shutting off the device. "Thank you, and I apologize. Perhaps you would like to demonstrate your skill on a more… public venue?"

He was rapidly growing tired of sparring with this primitive mon-keigh, but she took his lack of response as agreement. "In six weeks, we will be hosting the annual Galactic Blade Tournament. If you desire it, we can arrange for you to be invited. Most people must pay a fee to enter, and there is a limited number of applicants. However, each government is allowed to submit a certain number of participants. If you desire so, I can arrange for you to receive one of the slots normally reserved for the asari."

Arlas stared at her for a moment, before calmly sheathing his sword, and moving back to his seat to collect his glass. "No. I have little interest in such a… decadent endeavor."

He finished his water, and placed the cup on a nearby surface, the seat of one of the exercise machines, before turning and heading to the door. Once out of the room, he looked around, and sighed. "Subtle of you."

Six beings stood in the hallway near the door. Three turians, a pair of asari, and a salarian. Ghost was among them, her stance tight and mandibles trembling slightly as she spoke. "Arlas you-"

The Eldar activated his jump pack, and vanished as he heard the turian female scream his name in rage. He wanted to get back to the ship, not listen to her prattling. Dealing with most mon-keigh annoyed and exhausted him. But at least he knew this Citadel Council was not going to be willing allies of his people, though there was hope for the humans, ironically enough.


	13. Errands and Team Building

**Chapter 13 - Errands and Team Building**

 _A/N - A few in between missions, showing Arlas building up rapport and understanding with the ground team and ship's crew, learning and appreciating the technology of the Mass Effect universe, and making allies and friends. Or, more likely, not._

 _Also, due to a bug in the coding Elanos Haliat was a human, rather than a turian. Corrected that for the story._

" _I'm too sexy for my armor, to sexy for my armor; I demand all your ardor!" - Slaanesh chaos marine player, who was subsequently banned for that battle song. Or, more accurately, the dance that went with it. *shudders* Can't unsee even after twelve years… the horror… though the modified lyrics were sort of catchy..._

Arlas was glad to be away from the Citadel, though he wished it was so easy to get away from Icivia. They had left the Citadel several days back, the ship constantly lurching and thrashing about as they used their beastly method of travel between star systems. He just wished she would stop trying to get him to agree to the tournament. Her latest method was particularly ingenious and insidious, if inelegant and disgraceful. She had informed the whole crew about the asari councilor's offer to sponsor him into the tournament, and now everyone was trying to get him to compete. And when they weren't doing that, they were antagonizing him about 'his asari bondage fetish,' and kept trying to get the asari they had rescued, Liara T'soni, to spend time with him. She was avoiding him like the humans back home avoided chaos, rather sensibly in his opinion

When Yol'Pvera informed him of another mission, he was quite grateful to get off the ship, so he could kill something. He was therefore quite displeased when he heard that he wasn't invited, and the group instead would be the Twins, Gemling, Garrus, Kaidan, and Ashley, which would fill the ground transport. He still invited himself, if only to get away from the rest of the humans before he murdered one of them. He walked into the briefing room, and leaned against the wall as the Twins continued talking. "-probe got over here, as it was supposed to be aimed at Turian space, but we are to get in and recover it if practical and… Arlas, you aren't required here, and there isn't room for you in the mako anyway."

Arlas gave them a glare. "Twins, either I come on this mission, get to kill something and get away from the ship for a while, or you are going to start losing overly inquisitive crew members. Or possibly Ghost, either is good, both would be better."

The Twins shared a look before Joannis sighed. "You can't fit, and your lander is too threatening. This might not require combat"

He just shrugged. "I have a smaller vehicle I can use. It is built for this kind of situation anyway."

"And what situation is this then?"

He gave them a deadpanned stare. "The kind where I need to be alone and deploy to a planet."

The Twins shared another glance, before nodding. "Fine, you can come in it, I am guessing it is the smaller one in your lander. The mission is to find an old recon and espionage probe, one of dozens launched during the turian first contact war, somehow ended up over here. No one in the Systems Alliance, nor any of the surviving engineers or programmers the Alliance contacted, is entirely sure how it malfunctioned badly enough to explain how the probe got over here, as it was supposed to end up finding turian planets. Mission is to get in and recover it if practical, and destroy it if not."

Arlas leaned against the wall, already activating and preparing the Vyper assault hovercraft. As the briefing went on, the only real question he had was answered after Garrus posed the same one he was thinking. "So why the rush to go after it? It's just an old probe, not like it can cause any problems now."

This time the look the Twins exchanged had an uncomfortable edge to it, before Joannis took a second to compose her reply. "The probes were equipped with demolition charges. The last thing the alliance needs is to be blowing holes in planets from old recon and espionage probes."

Tali looked up from her omnitool, her eyes narrowed. "How big of a hole?"

Jaclyn gave the female quarian a lazy shrug that only increased Arlas' unease. "Fairly standard demolition charges. We didn't want someone tampering with it."

Arlas rolled his eyes, and headed back to the hangar. He knew enough to pick out his weapons, and needed to get the Vyper out of Raider and then give it a pre-mission check.

* * *

Arlas watched the human's land vehicle lurch up one side of a hill and then slam down on the other side, once again thanking his foresight in using the Vyper. He felt like he was barely moving, but he had no doubt it was better than sitting in the wheeled vehicle. He glanced back down and winced as he watched the vehicle tumble down the side of a steep hill, though he was surprised it landed right side up and with no damage he could see.

He glanced back at the scanner built into the Vyper as it chimed at him, before doing another circle around the human land vehicle, but frowned as he noted the vehicle had stopped at a structure set into the side of a hill. The Vyper in swooped down to hover near the primitive tank, where everyone else had gathered. He tapped his omnitool a couple times, before finally getting the damn thing to link with the rest of the team. "Why are we stopping?"

He watched the Twins look up before they replied. "Readings indicate the probe is in this mine."

Arlas stared over at them, before turning to look at the entrance to the hillside mine, and then back at the humans. "I seem to have underestimated human's yet again. I doubt an Eldar probe could get into a mine on its own, and yet here you have an old, basic probe doing it easily."

The Twins didn't seem amused by his sarcasm, and Jaclyn fired back. "Clearly it had help, the probe wasn't marked and whoever recovered it might be salvaging it for parts. Or it's a trap, and they plan to use the demolition charge against us. Either way, we have to head into the mine."

He glared at his sensor screen as it chimed at him again. "I have multiple contacts at a two kilometer range, holding distance. No clear numbers, but at least two groups, maybe more. Unless someone is capable of building something that registers as a mobile low building capable of moving over rough terrain."

The two contacts were quite large, so it was either several vehicles in close proximity to each other or a small mobile building as he had mentioned. Joannis didn't even hesitate. "Ashley, Jaclyn needs a gunner for the mako. Arlas reported contacts out at two klicks. Jaclyn, keep the mako intact. Arlas, assist them as you can."

Arlas acknowledged the order, activated the holofield to hide the Vyper's exact position, before trying to figure out how to get a communication to only one person. A minute later, Jaclyn called him. "Too important to give the human a call?"

Arlas fumed aloud at the mon-keigh omnitool. "Stupid, unintuitive, backwards, primitive, retarded, inbred, ugly, malfunctioning piece of rusty scrap metal! Going to scout the contacts. Will relay what I find."

"You are still on the squad channel, Arlas. But good idea, get going."

The Vyper jumped into the sky, heading for the contacts slowly crawling towards the hillside structure. Less than a minute later, he was over the first contact, and talking to the angry twin. "I see two sets of three ground vehicles, like yours but bigger in all aspects. Slower though. Second group is about a kilometer off, parallel the first group, appear to be trying to flank and pin you against the structure."

"Good copy, but still on squad channel. Circle and observe only for now."

Arlas rolled his eyes at the omnitool, tempted to destroy it but he didn't want to deal with the Twins getting angry about it again. Especially since he wouldn't have the excuse of it being an accident this time. Instead, he put the Vyper into a lazy loop, and circled both sets of vehicles and observe, reporting what he saw to Jaclyn.

There were six vehicles in two groups of three in a normal wedge formation. Heavy armor for the locals, but fairly thin if compared to armor back home. They had six massive tires, and a turret and antenna array, but other than being nearly half again the length of the Twin's mako they were remarkably similar. Done observing, he could do nothing but circle the slowly moving vehicles for a couple of moments, before Jaclyn suddenly contacted him. "Arlas, it's a trap. Pirate ambush, and those grizzly tanks are with them. Take out what you can, we will deal with the rest."

The Eldar rolled his eyes, put the Vyper into a dive. He cut back the throttle, lined up the starcannon turret and the underslung shuriken cannon at the rear most vehicle under him, and opened fire at the optimal range as he approached.

The first thing to hit were the monomolecular shurikens, tearing into the shields. Just before the first burst of fire from the cannon ended, the tank's shields just barely intact, the plasma bolts from the starcannons hit, the first pair ripping apart the shields, dispersing the physical component of the bolt, but the heat still warped the metal as it continued onward. Then the second and third pairs of plasma bolts arrived, effortlessly ripping through the thin, warped metal of the vehicle. The wheeled vehicle failed to explode but did slew to a halt as one side deformed and dragged on the ground, the tires exploding from the heat.

Arlas fired again at the same vehicle even before the shields collapsed, ensuring its demise. He then shifted aim and repeated the actions even as the other two vehicles suddenly slowed as they realized something had happened to the other vehicle. Arlas' shots drifted forward toward the front of the second vehicle as it stopped unexpectedly, but its fate quickly mirrored the first as he hit something important. The third vehicle's turret whirled about as the gunner tried to find whatever was killing the other vehicles. The Vyper was high enough that Arlas was outside its ability to spot him, let alone do something about it, so Arlas leisurely destroyed the third vehicle with another burst of fire.

Arlas had focused too much on the first group of vehicles, but the second group quickly reminded him that they were around with several rounds from their main and sub turrets. The main cannon rounds missed him badly thanks to his holofield, but the machine guns mounted on sub turrets had enough spread that they might hit him at a kilometer. Arlas smirked at the thought of being hit at such a range with such an inaccurate weapon.

The Eldar gods of Chance and Fate, however, were quick to remind him that they were still present when a round punched straight through the side of the Vyper, and slammed into his shoulder. He grunted with the impact against him even though it didn't penetrate his armor. Arlas quickly focused on getting out of the tanks' firing arcs, but not before another round punch through the canopy and was stopped by his psychic shields right in front of his throat before dropping into his tabard. He swore and put the Vyper through more energetic twists, dives, climbs and turns, but these gunners were alert and competent enough to at least keep one sub turret in his general direction.

Arlas was lucky and skilled enough to dodge further hits while moving above the main cannon's ability to elevate until a sudden explosion blossomed on one of the tanks distracted them. Arlas grumbled about being 'rescued' by mon-keigh as the Twin's tank sped by the armored column, its weapons tearing at the shields of one of the tanks. Two streaks of blue light suddenly slammed into the other two tanks, both resolving into figures, one in red armor, another in black.

The black one immediately lept into the air after slamming into the leading hostile tank hard enough to actually rock it back on its tires, before slamming a fist down into the prow of the tank. A blast of what looked like lightning erupted from the figure's fist, shattering the shields and continuing downward. Then their fist hit the tank, and Arlas couldn't help but stare as the tank actually kicked forward enough to bury its dented nose into the ground. The red armored figure had pulled something off its back and slapped it on the side of the third tank, before sprinting around the side of the vehicle. A couple seconds later, the explosive went off, tearing a hole in the side of the tank, and the figure came back around to enter the tank through the hole.

Rolling his eyes and making a note to find out just how his 'allies' had done what he had seen, but before he could realign the Vyper, the mako fired for a third time, the shot hitting the unshielded enemy tank and punching completely through the vehicle. He hissed his displeasure before bringing the Vyper down to hover near the ground. The displays were showing minor damage to one of the two main engines, and he wanted to check it before returning to the ship.

He did a quick check while the mako was picking up the krogan and human, and found only a small dent in the outer casing of the engine. A glancing hit with no real damage to the engine, though he would need to fix it after plugging the two holes in the cockpit. Arlas leaned against the Vyper, settling down to wait for the ship to land and pick up the mako. The Eldar sighed after hearing on the omnitool that the pilot would be down in fifteen minutes, before opening a communication with the group. "Interesting fight. Good, brisk exercise. What happened?"

Joannis answer first. "After entering the mine, we followed the signal straight to the probe. A pirate contacted us, made some threats, then activated the demolition charge."

Tali cut in, slightly hysterical. "A nuclear demolition charge! What is wrong with you humans?"

Arlas frowned. "What is her problem?"

The quarian snapped back at the Eldar. "It is a nuclear warhead, with fallout, put on a probe to find planets. Contamination of the ground and air, a few thousand years before the area is usable again? Or do the Eldar not care about taking care of their planets?"

Arlas turned and drew himself to his full height, towering over Gemling. "First, this world is useless for naught but mining. Second, this is a human problem, not Eldar, therefore I fail to see why I should offer my opinion on it. Third, Eldar live for thousands of years, so what do we care if we have to step away from a biosphere for a couple of millennia to let a minor issue clear up?"

He turned back to Joannis. "And after the charge was activated, I assume you disarmed it?"

"Yes, and then came back out to help against the tanks and capture the leader. Though you made that part of the plan irrelevant."

Garrus was digging through the bodies in the lead tank, and pulled one out. He removed the helmet from the corpse, and examined the face of the turian he had removed before nodding. "Shepards, found the leader we spoke to."

Jaclyn sauntered over to the corpse and stared down at it, before taking a picture of the turian with her omnitool. "Elanos Haliat, how did that revenge attempt go for you?"

Arlas watched her finish with her trophy picture or whatever she was doing, and turn back to the group. "Alright, everyone back into the mako, Arlas into your hover vehicle and… were you shot? You have a hole in your outfit."

He glanced at the hole the round to his shoulder had caused, before shrugging. "I am not injured, armor stopped the bullet. Can we discuss something more important, specifically how you and Wrex did your charge, and how you managed to refine your psy-craft enough to get a perfectly spherical discharge of energy?"

Everyone stopped to stare at him, before the Twins exchanged a look. He sighed in his helmet as he felt that flicker of warp energy between the two, but didn't bother trying to trace it. He couldn't sense their power when he was in his lander in a meditation circle trancing, so he definitely wouldn't be able to sense it here; it was clearly only there to torment him, as he lacked the skill to trace it to find if they had minimal active talent, or massive latent talent. Joannis spoke, tearing him from his thoughts. "You keep saying psicraft. Is that what your people call biotics?"

"No, biotics are weak techniques that rarely accomplish anything according to my research. What your twin and Wrex was doing was anything but. And it is psycraft, not psicraft."

The Twins exchanged another look while the krogan and Kaidan both glared at the Eldar. Arlas just waited, and eventually Jaclyn answered. "Biotics are caused by element zero exposure in utero, though later exposures can have lesser effects, mostly cancerous. All of our techniques are caused by that exposure. The techniques we used today were charge by both of us, and I used a nova to destroy the leading Grizzly tank. What can you do with this psycraft?"

He gave them a smirk, despite the fact they couldn't see it, before crossing his arms. "What is a monkey?"

Both of the Twins made a simplistic hand gesture in his direction that even he recognized as the Normandy swooped down out of the sky. He glanced up at ship, before getting into his Vyper; he could finish the repairs and cleaning the atmosphere and grit out of the heavy hoverbike in the hangar.

* * *

Arlas looked up and frowned. He had been testing his long rifle on the ship's shooting range two days after the probe incident, and lamenting the fact that he only had fifty meters to work with. That distance was enough for pistols, but made it difficult for the larger weapons to used for anything other than the most basic of tests. He glanced at Ashley or Anvil, the nickname earned after she had remained standing in a hand to hand match with him far longer than he had expected, and Garrus, whom he now called Tweaks since he was constantly taking his long rifle apart to modify it. "Can either of you hear that? Not the engines, something… under it."

Both the turian and human paused, and listened, before shaking their heads, though Anvil spoke. "Nope, sorry, can't hear it."

Garrus simply shrugged, and went back to modifying his rifle. After a moment of trying to bring the 'sound' he was hearing into focus, Arlas rose from his prone position and collapsed his rifle's barrel before stowing it on his back. He paused to sense where the Twins were as he left the firing range, before heading for the elevator. He ignored most of the people he passed, the only four that concerned him were the Twins, Ghost, and Wrex. Wrex for earning a sliver of respect, Ghost for being relentlessly annoying and typically mon-keigh, and the Twins because they were the ship mistresses, and he wasn't going to piss them off lest they try to toss him out an airlock.

The elevator took its usual eternity to get to the top, during which he checked with Yol'Pvera about the 'noise' and learned that she heard it as well but only rarely, and had no idea what it was. He quickly made his way up to the CiC after the elevator stopped. A quick glance showed the briefing room closed and guarded, which meant the Twins were likely talking to someone important. The Eldar glanced about the CiC after a moment of contemplating the door, but didn't see the older man that had been pointed out to him as being the secondary shipmaster after the Twins. So he strode down the hall toward the pilot's station, figuring the ship's helmsman might be able to answer his query.

As Arlas entered the helmsman's station, he noted two extra seats on either side of the pilot's chair, though only the one immediately to the pilot's right had an occupant, the human Kaidan from the ground team. He stepped forward after a moment of observing the two, and hearing only meaningless banter, stopping behind the pilot's chair. "Pilot."

The human pilot had been too absorbed in his verbal spar with Kaidan, and yelped in surprise before twisting around to see who had spoken. "Son of a bitch! Don't just appear like that or put a bell on, you are going to give someone a heart attack doing that. Uh, please. Sir."

Arlas just stared at the pilot for a moment wondering why the Twins spoke so highly of their pilot, before turning his gaze to Kaidan as the other human spoke up. "Is there something you need, Pathfinder?"

"Yes, permission to launch my lander to do some scans without this hunk of metal blocking them, and to see what your local scans of this stellar region reveal."

His request caused both humans to stare blankly at him, before Joker turned to Kaidan. "Your call sir, you are in charge with XO Pressly resting and the commanders in their call."

Kaidan frowned, before shaking his head. "No, you can't launch, but you can see what scans we have taken of the system. I will set up the station behind me for you to use."

Kaidan tapped at his console for a moment, before nodding to the Eldar. "Do you need me to assist you, sir?"

Arlas frowned at the human, thinking very carefully before he answered. "I suspect I will, as I doubt your people use the same symbols and scans I am familiar with."

The Eldar took the seat behind Kaidan, and frowned at the screen, as the pilot began quietly, for a human, grousing about his ship being called a hunk of metal. "Considering I can not interact with this, I assume you are going to direct this?"

"Correct. Starting from the top left and going right along the top, we have…"

Arlas suffered through a half hour of having the display explained in exhaustive detail, but at least he could read what the blind mon-keigh ship sensors were detecting. Sadly, the sensors weren't meant to pick up what he was looking for, but looking over the data did reveal what the ship could detect. The ship had three sensors nets as the Eldar would classify them, or four if someone counted the crew's eyes.

None, however, were what he needed as Arlas had figured out that what he was 'hearing' was likely psyker in nature, so none of the psy-deaf crew would be able to hear it, and it was exceedingly unlikely that they could detect the signals that would indicate a psyker emenation. He stood after a few minutes of staring at the readings with only vague comprehension and strode off, ignoring the looks from the two humans in the cockpit, and stopped to lean against the wall at the back of the CiC. He typed out a quick message to the Twins before waiting.

A few minutes later, Jaclyn came out, her posture stiff and her anger apparent even to him. "What?"

He simply raised an eyebrow at her curt tone, but didn't comment on it. "I would like to launch my lander and-"

She cut him off, her hand slashing like a blade to emphasize her decision. "Denied. Joker? Get us to Trebin, should be in system. Joannis wants to be a rescue more civilians."

She stepped back into the briefing room, not bothering to give him time to argue. He stood still for a moment, anger consuming him, before he took a deep breath and left the CiC. As he took the elevator down, he heard the ship communicator come on. "Arlas, Icivia, Ashley, and Wrex, to the briefing room. Arlas, Icivia, Ashley, and Wrex, to the briefing room."

He stepped out of the elevator, and ignored Anvil and Wrex both waiting for it, striding for his ship. Anvil called out as he walked past. "Hey, the commanders requested you report to the briefing room."

Arlas' only response was to give her an immolating death glare that should have blown her out the front of the starship, before sealing the ramp behind him. He then headed for the armory, intent on practicing his psycraft, pausing only long enough to get into his armor and inform Yol'Pvera of his anger toward the angry Twin. Once in the armory, he took a seat in his psycraft circle, and began attempting to divine his path. He only got to try for twenty minutes, with no success, before Yol'Pvera contacted him. * _The leader twin is outside the lander. She wishes to speak with you._ *

Arlas sighed, before reaching down and touching the floor, opening the lander bay door and the door into the armory. After a moment, Joannis stepped into the room, radiating curiosity as she looked around the inner room, requiring a moment before she remembered why she was here. Arlas didn't rise, staying in the middle of the meditation circle, though he wasn't radiating psy-energies and his helmet was on a nearby table. "We requested your presence in the briefing room."

Arlas simply projected his anger, and growing impatience, hoping she got to the point before he lost control on his temper. "I am curious as to what happened. All I know is you talked to my sister, and then a few minutes later you gave Ashley a glare that was almost a physical attack."

He stood up, and turned to face the human. He simply stared at her, looking down at the tiny human for a moment. "How many times have your people insulted me enough to demand a retaliation?"

His question made her blink, confusion suddenly consuming her mind. "I… what?"

"How many times have your people insulted me enough to demand a retaliation?"

She blinked, before shrugging. "I would say none, but I suspect you don't agree."

He gave her a grim smile. "In the five weeks on this vessel, the mon-keigh here have insulted me severely enough to justify a physical response seventy three times. Your sister's gesture while interrupting me was enough for me to kill everyone on board to balance such an insult, before then leaving to find and hunt down their families."

Joannis' head snapped back as she took a step back, her eyes wide with shock at such a calm proclamation. He gave a grim smile, and repeated her sister's gesture, his hand slashing across. "This gesture among Eldar is that of a respected superior chastising a foolish subordinate. Her tone altered that to disgusted rebuke rather than a neutral correction. Since your sister is not my superior, is not qualified to pass judgement on my wisdom, nor in a position to rebuke me for asking to launch my lander without even having the courtesy to listen to the full request, yes, I am extremely angry at her."

He gave her a grim smile, before tilting his head slightly. "Eldar don't just speak with our voices, we speak with our minds, and our bodies. Back home, humans call us fickle and capricious, because they refuse to understand that simple fact. The closest race I have encountered here with a similar level of sophistication is the asari, followed quite closely by the quarians. I am not sure the latter is intentional, but the former most certainly is."

Joannis visibly rallied herself, before nodding. "Then would my apology on her behalf help?"

"No, but avoiding her will. My request was to launch my lander, so I could use its sensor to scan the system for something, as yours don't detect it. There is something here, and I can somewhat 'sense' it, as can Yol'Pvera, though she thinks it is just noise. It sounds like-"

Joannis had stiffened when he mentioned something their sensors couldn't detect but he could sense, and she softly spoke at the same time he did. "Singing."

Arlas paused, giving her a suspicious look, and Joannis took control of the conversation. "My sister and I have been hearing it since we arrived in system. Reason she is so angry. But that isn't important.

"We are heading toward a nearby planet to check on a survey team monitoring a terraforming process. They lost their last communication satellite, and haven't reported in a couple weeks. We will be checking to see what happened, and you can do your checks then. Would you be willing to take two people with you, so they can inform us if something happens or you find something? I was thinking Tali and Liara. Both are good at data parsing and quiet."

Arlas stared at the tiny human female. He recognized she was trying to be diplomatic, but that insult had been enough. He took a deep breath, and then released it. "Your twin does not talk to me for a week, and spends minimal time in my presence during that time. Since I mostly remain down here, that shouldn't be an issue. If so, I will… dismiss... her latest insult."

Arlas hadn't expected the last part to be physically difficult to say, but it was the best he was willing to offer, and was more than most mon-keigh got which was usually a blade to the throat or a faceful of monomolecular shuriken. He was thankful as Joannis seemed to sense he was being exceptionally generous, even if she probably didn't know just how much so, and nodded. "I will let Jaclyn know. Though we need to sit down with you and discuss your people's culture, if only to avoid further such unintentional insults. And please remember that you are among other races, so don't judge us by your people's standards and we won't judge you by ours."

He simply nodded, realizing that his avoidance of discussing his own people had partially led to the problem, and she was making a reasonable request. He was being a bit overly snappish today. Joannis continued. "We should be arriving at Trebin soon, you can launch while we are in orbit. See if you can find a location, and we can divert to it."

She left before he could ask how she knew about what the psychic emanation 'sounded' like, but the answer was obvious after a second of contemplation. The twins were either low potential psykers, or powerful but latent ones. He would need to meditate on which was more likely.

* * *

Arlas swore as the ship jerked to a stop, nearly flinging him out of his meditation circle. He wasn't any wiser to his situation, either the twins psyker potential or what to expect, having switched to trying to divine the future. As he stood up, his helpful copilot contacted him. * _We have arrived at Trebin, the two xenos are outside, waiting to board. And I still think this is a waste of time._ *

He sent a request to Yol'Pvera to be nice, instead of continuing their debate. She could hear whatever he and the Twins could but thought it was just noise, so thought this was a waste of time. He was done arguing though, and simply had her start the power plant and engines, before opening the bay door. He glanced at the door leading to the bridge, before sighing. * _Yol'Pvera, can you reconfigure the co-pilot's seat for another? Tali can check the sensors-_ *

He flinched as his pilot sent her fury and contempt at the thought of letting a mon-keigh into her cockpit. He sent back a feeling of acceptance, which mollified her a bit, before he headed for the cockpit, but quickly discovered that Yol'Pvera was still angry with him, and didn't open the door for him. * _Yol'Pvera, open the door please._ *

* _You desire to spend time with the mon-keigh so much, go sit in the troop bay._ *

He knew better than to argue with the pilot of his lander, else she might decide to vent the troop bay with him inside one day. While normally not a problem, he might have his helmet off. So he did the sensible thing when facing the wrath of the opposite gender, and headed for the bay. * _Might need your help when we get planetside. Depends on what we find._ *

He smirked at the feeling of pure derision his pilot sent, making her feelings on the outing completely clear, but he quickly departed the armory. The quarian and asari were both seated already, and both looked up as he entered and took a seat. They exchanged a look, before Tali spoke up. "I thought we were going somewhere."

He nodded, before gesturing languidly to the troop bay's door, which showed the Normandy quickly receding. He didn't speak aloud immediately, instead psychically directing Yol'Pvera toward where he thought the psychic 'singing' was loudest. As they approached the planet, he glanced at his two companions, and decided to be sociable, if not verbally. * _We are checking out something I sensed as we entered the system. The soft twin insisted that someone accompany me, and suggested you two. I doubt this will be anything more than a sensor sweep._ *

He smirked in his helmet slightly as the asari's head recoiled in shock, before she cast about to see what she had 'heard.' He didn't reply further, as Tali and Liara started talking and he focused on guiding Yol'Pvera. As they approached the planet, the 'singing' got louder, and as they entered the atmosphere, Yol'Pvera admitted to not needing his guidance anymore, as she could hear it clearly now as singing. A few seconds after his copilot admitted to hearing it, Liara looked up from her conversation with Tali. "What is that noise?"

He twisted his head to look at her, surprised she was already hearing it, before replying. "What we are here to check."

Fifteen minutes later, the lander slowly halted just above the ground, and the bay door opened, revealing the planet. It was fairly typical in his experience, dark brown and green rocks with a sky full of thick pale clouds. No life, as the locals were experimenting with ice comets to expedite terraforming, but from the looks of it they were doing well. He could hear reports from the Twins from his omnitool, now a slightly better one since he had stopped shocking himself whenever he tried to do more than research with it, on another part of the planet looking into why the terraforming team was no longer responding to outside contact.

But the most important, the singing was now nearly a physical sensation, deafening in his mind, even with the ghosthelm. Liara was wincing whenever the 'song' hit a high range, and Tali was just listening, enraptured by the sensation, even as she tapped away at her omnitool. "My tool and suit sensors aren't picking up any of this. I have never even heard of anything like this before. How are we hearing this?"

Arlas was pacing slowly around the lander, trying to figure out where the 'song' was loudest. He had to reply vocal since he wouldn't be heard over the loud psy-song. "It is a psychic phenomena. Now you understand why I wanted to investigate. My people usually communicate with our psychic abilities, body language and words are less important unless we talk with another race. However, this is something I have never encountered before. Might be an artifact, might be a race. Considering the location and the fact the planet until recently barely had an atmosphere, I suspect a lost artifact of a dead race, trying to contact them."

He finished his walk around, before heading back into the lander, having to psychically shout to be heard over the 'singing.' * _Yol'Pvera, we are too close, I need your help. Specifically, you in your wraithguard, pinpointing the location._ *

He felt her disgust at the thought of leaving her lander, but she quickly agreed. Arlas carefully removed her spirit stone from the main console of the lander, and headed into the armory. Inside, in one corner was a three and a half meter column, and the wraithguard stood at the ready inside it, its chest open and ready for the gem. The craftworld had originally mounted the gems externally for ease of adding and removing the gems, but some mon-keigh made a game of sniping the gems, releasing the spirit and immediately rendering the walker inert. Now the chest plate would swing open to accept the gem, before sealing shut.

Arlas left the lander while Yol'Pvera's mind expanded to fill its new home, perform some basic checks of the body and pick what weapon she would bring. He stepped out, to find Liara a short distance from the lander, examining a dirt dune. From where he was, he could look around, and see a small ridge at about a kilometer from his location, according to his rangefinder, maybe five or ten meters tall. Several small dunes similar to the one Liara was examining were randomly scattered about the plain. Tali was near one of the engines, waving her omnitool at the lander. "Tali, if you try one more time to steal Eldar propulsion technology, my copilot will tear that arm off."

Tali jumped at his voice, before turning and narrowing her silver eyes at him. "I am not trying to steal your engine technology, I am trying to identify whatever your ship is made out of. Half the time my omnitool doesn't even register it, while the other half it keeps giving me conflicting information. Besides, you have been on the ship for nearly a month and a half now, and no one has seen this mysterious copilot of yours. Either they don't exist, or you… you… Keelah."

Arlas didn't bother turning, the wraithguard's shadow falling over him was proof enough that Yol'Pvera was done checking the body, even without her question. * _Where first?_ *

Arlas sent a mental shrug, ignoring the way Tali stared at his copilot's walker. * _Wherever the singing is loudest. It is so loud I can not tell the difference, and the other two aren't sensitive enough to be able to discern where it is loudest without walking around for a couple hours._ *

He turned back to the wraithguard, and took a moment to admire the wraithbone construct, all three meters of it. Dark grey body and limbs, long and graceful while still being heavy enough to absorb considerable damage and keep functioning, while the head, shoulder pads, and tabard were the color of deep, burnished gold. The heavy distortion cannon in the constructs hands was a deep red with golden highlights, the color of dried blood, and a bright white rune was engraved on the head, the sigil of warding. The wraithguard was also as silent as death itself, unlike the similar constructs of the mon-keigh which squeaked, squealed, clanked, and bashed their way through reality.

Yol'Pvera sent back understanding, her own curiosity getting the better of her, and after a moment walked toward one of the dunes. After a moment, Tali and Liara both followed, though Liara kept looking around at their surroundings. "I wonder what caused this crater? It's so flat, except for those small dunes."

Tali abruptly froze, and Arlas turned as fear began running off her in waves. "What is it, Gemling?"

The Arlas' surprise, his nickname for the quarian didn't get a rise out of her for once. "We need to leave. Now."

Both the asari and Eldar turned to the quarian, though Liara was the first to speak. "Why?"

Tali couldn't answer before suddenly the ground rocked slightly, a minor earthquake. "I think this might be a thresher maw nest."

Arlas was intrigued by the fear coming off the quarian, and now asari. "And what exactly is a thresher maw?"

Yol'Pvera had kept marching forward, as he tried to get more information, as another earthquake occurred, stronger than the previous. Before they could reply, something a hundred meters from the group breached the ground, rearing up toward the sky and screaming loud enough to block out the psychic singing for a moment, before it turned toward the group. Arlas took one look at the massive serpentine body, the four fangs surrounding a circular mouth full of teeth, two huge claws arched up over its head, and the massive plating covering it, before he yelled a warning out of experience and habit even as he sprinted away from the lander. "VIRAGON! Ware the brood in the tunnels behind it!"

He watched the creature rear back, and dove to the side, tackling both his companions out of the way as the creature spat something coated in acid at them. It missed the group, and splattered like a grenade against the ground beyond them, covering a five meter spread in hissing green goo. He glared at the hissing ground as he rolled free of his two squad members, and yanked his long rifle off his back. * _Bad day to not bring the fusion gun. You two, get up and fight, panic later. Yol'Pvera, wake up, tyranid bioform on the attack!_ *

He got a feeling of scorn from Yol'Pvera, who had finally noticed they were under attack, and leveled her distortion cannon at the distant enemy. After a second, a black hole appeared on the thresher maw's side, the meter wide hole ripping right through its armor plating and making the creature wail in pain. Arlas fired his long rifle as fast as he could, trying to take out its eyes, but the small stalks they were mounted on waved erratically, making it difficult even for him to hit them. Tali finally got to her feet, and began firing her pistol at the thing in a show of pointless defiance, while Liara had already rolled to her feet and was throwing blue ball after ball at the creature. The balls hit the thresher maw, and didn't see to do much that he could see, but he had to trust she was actually doing something. There wasn't time to do more than shout warnings and fire.

The creature was massive, towering at least thirty meters in the air, but unlike the Viragons he was familiar with, it didn't pull itself out of the tunnel it had dug to close to melee with them. Another black bubble from the distortion cannon blurred into existence in the beast, ripping a section of it clear and into the immaterium, causing another screech of pain and rage, but by now the group had spread enough to avoid having multiple people hit by a single attack. Arlas rolled to one side to avoid an acid spike, this time clearly seeing the bony spike in the center of the attack that shattered on impact with the ground, spraying acid everywhere.

Another acid spike lanced out, this time at the asari, and a glob of acid hit her as the spike shattered in spite of her attempt to dodge, making her cry out in pain as it quickly started burning through her thigh armor. Tali launched an attack from her omnitool, this one glowing red that caused flames to ignite when it hit the distant target while still firing her pistol one handed. Liara had stopped throwing the blue balls at the creature, and was carefully firing her pistol at it, wincing slightly at each discharge from the gun.

Then Yol'Pvera discharged her distortion cannon again, and this time Arlas thought she had missed, because he saw no black ball form. So he was as surprised as the others when the thresher maw violently seized once and then fell over, hitting the ground hard enough to cause Liara to fall over. After a second, he realized that Yol'Pvera must have somehow threaded a shot into the creature's mouth, hitting the top of it, and ripping the brain out of its head and into the immaterium. He glanced at his copilot, and gave her a small nod. * _Good shot._ *

Yol'Pvera's only reaction was to turn away and start back toward the dune she had been walking toward, Arlas jogging and quickly caught up. Yol'Pvera walked right over the dune, but a few seconds later she turned around and came back. He could just barely make her out over the 'singing.' * _Loudest here._ *

Arlas looked around, before kneeling down and running a hand over the dune, causing the loose dirt to tumble free. He looked up at the two squad mates, both staring at the dead thresher maw, and reminding him that maybe he should report in. He tapped his omnitool, opening a link to the ship and the Twins. "Arlas here, we just killed a viragon, correction, thresher maw. Everyone is fine."

Wrex replied first. "Really? Awesome, stay near it, I want to get some cuts from it. Thresher maws are damned good eating."

Joannis got on the comm as soon as Wrex finished. "Good job Arlas, find what you were looking for?"

He looked down at the dirt, before shrugging. "Need to do some digging first, will call later."

He glanced over to the quarian, and whistled into the comm to get his squad's attention. "Tali, need a scan here."

Joannis cut back into the conversation. "Arlas, command line is still open."

The Normandy pilot also spoke. "Ship line as well. Also, oww, that whistle was piercing."

Arlas swore and tapped the button again, killing the link as several people were heard laughing in the background. Done closing the extra lines, and cursing the unintuitive nature of mon-keigh technologies, he turned his attention back to the shocked quarian staring at the massive corpse, Yol'Pvera already on her way back to the lander. "Tali, scan please."

Tali finally shook herself out of her daze, and turned from the dead space worm, Liara already on her way over. Once they arrived and started scanning, he started walking back to the lander, intent on putting Yol'Pvera back in it and move the lander closer. He got all of five steps after the quarian arrived, when suddenly the 'singing' stopped, replaced by a silence that was almost deafening. He glanced at the quarian, before asking the obvious question. "What did you find?"

Tali looked up, and shrugged. "Something solid and heavy, about four meters down, roughly spherical and two meters across, I think. I can tell you more if I can get a scan without the dirt in the way."

Arlas glanced at the dune, before nodding. "Call the twins, see if they want us to dig… whatever it is up."

He glanced down at the dirt covering whatever it was, before shrugging and heading back to the lander to get Yol'Pvera back in. Just because it used psyker abilities didn't mean it was Eldar, so he would worry about it when they had dug it up. A half hour later, the Normandy came screaming in for a landing, and the first person to jump out, almost before the ship landed, was the red armored krogan. The krogan looked over at the massive thresher maw, and then stalked toward it, carrying a massive slab of metal. Arlas wouldn't have called it a blade if his life depended on it, as it was simply too thick on both edges to be sharp. But Wrex got next to the massive corpse, and then wrapped the metal slab in a blue aura, before swinging it and tearing a massive rend into its side.

As the krogan began harvesting meat from the thresher maw, the Twins came over. "So this is where that 'singing' coming from? Well, lets dig it up."

* * *

Later, after digging up the unusual, ovaloid artifact and returning to the ship, most of the crew was in the mess hall while the ship headed for their next destination, Arlas included for a change. Wrex and two of the humans were cooking the harvested meat, and the food storage had been nearly filled with thresher maw meat. Arlas usually avoided eating meat, but tonight he was making an exception, since everyone insisted on honoring him for leading the expedition that had provided such a bounty, despite his denials of fact and insisting he preferred to be alone.

So now he was sitting in the corner of the mess hall, letting the crew swarm around Tali and Liara, questioning them about the fight with the thresher maw, and whatever else caught their fancy. Most of the crew were avoiding Arlas, though several appeared to marshalling their courage. Arlas simply ate his small meal of bread, nuts, honey, and salad leaves. He had wanted to try some of the thresher maw, he was a pathfinder and addicted to new sensations after all, but the krogan had waved his cleaver in an exaggerated and threatening manner that was clearly not serious, so he had decided to wait.

He tried twice more, and was warned off twice more, before he finally glared at the krogan. "And what is required to get the portion you mentioned?"

Wrex peered at him with one eye, before giving him a crooked grin. "It is later. Now talk. Orcs."

Arlas groaned as Wrex mentioned the orks, even if he didn't pronounce it correctly, and again as the rest of the room started clamoring for more information as well. After a second of glaring at the krogan, who was as immune to his ire as always, he relented. "Fine."

The Eldar turned away, and took the elevator down, ignoring Wrex's roar of protest, and several humans laughing as the door closed. He grabbed his pouch of runes, and a memory crystal from his room, before heading back to the elevator. Once he arrived, he paused in confusion as one of the human crewmen swore loudly, as others laughed again. He dismissed the action as another human oddity, before clearing a space off one table, and put the memory crystal on it. Normally only Eldar could observe the memories from a crystal, but he knew a ritual that would allow others to share his thoughts, though it usually was only used among Eldar to allow a warlock to lead a squad.

He pulled the runes he needed from the bag, ignoring the curious stares, and after a moment had pulled the dozen he required from it. He arranged them in a circle around the crystal and focused his energies. As the smell of ozone began to suffuse into the area, and unlight surrounded his head and hands, the runes began to rise, slowly circling the crystal, which also began to glow. "You asked to know about the orks, Wrex? I think you will find them rather similar to your kind. And completely different as well."

Arlas gave his power another pulse, trying to get the energies to align as he needed, when he felt the power snap into what he required. Another deep breath, and then he forced the energies outward, ensnaring all the mon-keigh in the room, and drawing them into his memories.

 _A/N - Evil cliffhangers ahoy! But I am sure my readers can figure out what was in the ground if they really think about it. Not in the game, but the singing was, and in fact very near where the thresher maw on that planet was found. As usual, Favorite, Review, and Follow, but most importantly, enjoy._


	14. Of Fire and Fury

**Chapter 14 - Of Fire and Fury**

 _A/N - Love the fact my story already has 25k+ views, and hasn't quite been out for 3 months. What I hate is when you plan a nice short mission, then the mission steals your keyboard and makes the mission practically its own chapter._

 _As a reminder, reposting the various notations used, because the Eldar don't necessarily speak when 'talking' to other Eldar. Combined notations mean both were used._

" _speech" | *mental speech/thoughts* | {untranslated speech} | (nonverbal communications)_

' _Mah SPAHLEEEEEEEEN!' - Every chaos cultist upon taking a mortal wound. Every one of them. Every. One._

 _And now, introducing everyone's favorite lethal joke jocks from the Warhammer 40k verse... DA ORKS! Green is best._

Arlas' memory started in a dense forest, as he moved silently through the trees surrounded by twelve other Eldar. Six were in similar armor to what the mon-keigh had seen him wearing, though less ornate, but the other six were in heavier armor, thick plates and a distinctive helm, a thick bulge on the back with tubes running along either side of the jaw, connecting to some sort of nozzle or barrel just past the front of the jaw. The swords were serrated, and when powered would whirl the sharpened serrated edges around, messily rendering opponents to bloody pieces.

The group moved silently through the rough terrain, and after a few seconds, reached the edge of the trees and saw their target. A massive horde of beings, moving through a small valley between the forest and a nearby cliff. The distance was too far to make out details of the horde, even with an Eldar's superior eyes, but it was clear there were quite a significant number of green colored individuals and vehicles. Arlas dropped to a knee, and leveled his rifle, looking over the ramshackle vehicles, most looking like they should barely run, let alone actually move with any sort of speed.

The cloaked Eldar began setting up at the edge of the forest, and the armored Eldar taking place to in a half circle around them, when suddenly one of the cloaked Eldar looked up. (What was that?)

Before anyone could reply, ten forms suddenly lept at the group from the nearby trees, some rushing from around them, but a couple jumped down from the lowest branches, unconcerned about a four meter fall. All ten forms picked a different Eldar, prioritizing the cloaked Eldar over the armored one, leaving three scorpions unengaged, who immediately dove into the fights to help against the ambushers.

Arlas got a good look at his attacker as he dropped his rifle, yanking a chain blade and pistol off his waist to deflect his personal attacker's descending soot covered long knife. He had the uncommon experience of looking up to see his opponent's face. It was huge and squarish, a leering grin showing off sharp teeth crowned by two massive tusks, one red eye glaring balefully while the other had been replaced with a crude optic. Arms with thews thicker than his thighs drove the deflected blade into a nearby tree, effortlessly turning the eight centimeter thick trunk into kindling.

Arlas noticed the fight was completely silent. He knew why the Eldar were, not wanting to alert the massive horde near them to the fight, but the fact the orks weren't screaming their iconic warcry was surprising, almost as much as the fact they weren't using their firearms, or even carrying any other than a couple rokkit launchas and burnas. It wasn't until he spotted the streaks of dirt and mud on his opponent's face, the fact it had red tusks, and the absurd number of grenades on their person that he realized what they were fighting.

 **Blood Tusk Kommando Boyz**.

He swore under his breath and attacked his opponent with a flurry of blows, his skill with the blade matching that of the Striking Scorpions around them, but his opponent was skilled enough with his own blade to keep the Eldar at bay. The exchanged blows for a couple seconds, before suddenly the orc lashed out with a vicious kick, catching Arlas in the gut and launching him backwards to hit a tree with his back. He grunted, stunned, but looked up as the ork was beheaded by one of the scorpions. He forced himself to his feet, and swore. Four of the six other rangers were dead, and one of the scorpions was as well, but only five of the ten kommandos were still standing, including the massive leader, a nob who was even taller than its subordinates who were already taller than the Eldar.

The nob was a whirlwind of fury, holding off three of the scorpions as they attacked from different angles. Another ork fell, its head blasted apart by one of the other rangers, and Arlas moved forward with the scorpion who had rescued him, rushing another kommando. They killed their target quickly, as another ranger's head was bisected by a kommando's axe. The nob managed to grab and then rip off the arm of a scorpion trying to eviscerate him, but the Eldar managed to roll clear of the fight. Arlas and the scorpion separated, the scorpion heading for the nob, and Arlas heading for the last ork kommando, trying to cut it off from the ranger.

He was slow, but the ranger dodged the first strike of the blade, but was blindsided by the meaty fist of the ork, knocking the ranger to the ground. Arlas body checked the ork to prevent it from bringing its iron shod boot down on the ranger's head. He was too light to actually knock the ork over, but he did knock the massive creature off balance, preventing it from crushing the helpless ranger's head. The creature's wildly flailing arms threw Arlas off it, but both regained their balance, and rushed each other. Arlas rolled under the blow, and swiped with his chain blade at knee height, taking the leg off. He swung again, this time removing the kommandos arm past the elbow, and then fired a long burst from his pistol into the ork's throat, shredding the flesh.

Done with the last kommando boy, he glanced to the side, and saw the scorpions had finally killed the nob, though another scorpion had their elbow sliced in half, and was holding the wound while another was sealing the wound with some wraith-webbing until they got back to the host. Arlas headed back to his rifle, pausing only only to kick the blade away from each ork he passed. As he picked up his rifle, he heard someone chuckling wetly behind him. He turned, and saw that the last ork he had fought was the one he had heard.

The ork stared at him for a moment, before speaking haltingly. "Gud fight… panzy. But we boyz… got some… thing for yaz. A nice… suppize."

Every Eldar raised their weapons, but before they could fire, two of the other ork kommandos, one cut in half at the waist, the other stabbed through the chest by a scorpion chain blade, screamed at the top of their lungs.

" **WAAAAAAAAAAGH!** "

All the Eldar froze for a fraction of a second, before shooting the screaming orks and the one that had been talking. Arlas fired at the talker and ripped off half its face, while the others shredded the screamers. He turned to the edge of the forest, while sending orders. *( _Pull the wounded back and gather the spirit stones, then we return to the host. This mission is over._ )*

He got to the edge of the forest, and saw that the massive host was still in the valley, but now every ork head he could see was turned in his direction. He was grateful for the ridge and his cloak, which kept the orks from spotting him, but already he could see small groups loping in his direction. But right at the edge of the convoy, he could see a group of nobs, and towering over them the warboss and target of the raid.

Covered in massive, somewhat rusty plates of armor that sparked erratically, a massive flaming claw on one arm powerful enough to rip through tank armor and a dual barreled rifle on its other arm with a barrel big enough for the Eldar to stick his head in, the warboss was an imposing figure, even before someone considered the fact he was at least four meters tall. Arlas threw himself prone onto the ridge, and leveled his rifle, targeting the only weak spot he could see in the armor, the ork's unprotected right eye. He could sense the other Eldar limping away, but he didn't have time to wait for them to get clear. The mission was to kill the boss, and here he was. He took a deep breath, leveled his rifle, put his trust in the Farseer, and fired twice.

* * *

Arlas ended the memory as the rifle kicked twice, and looked around at the mon-keigh, most blinking in confusion though a few were rubbing their chests or shoulders where he had been hit in the memory. "That was an ork. Further questions?"

He kept his voice extremely dry, but sadly didn't remember who he was addressing as Wrex placed a massive plate full of meat on it in front of him. "Where can I find those? Look like they would be fun to fight."

Arlas rolled his eyes, before looking at the plate. "And what am I supposed to do with all this?"

Wrex gave him a smirk. "Eat it, you are too… pansy-like to have been eating right. This will put some mass on you."

Arlas' reply was to abruptly lean forward and slam his fist into Wrex's headplate, before looking around at the rest of the mess hall as the krogan fell backwards and thudded to the floor, both hands holding his head where he had been punched. "There are two types of beings that can call an Eldar a pansy. Those who are about to kill them, and those about to be killed by the Eldar."

He paused as Wrex came to his feet with a roar, and simply glared at the krogan. "What would you do to someone that called you plateless and lacking a quad?"

His non-sequitur caused Wrex to pause, before sitting. "Punch them in the face."

Arlas simply nodded to the krogan, before turning back to his… serving, which he swore was larger than it had been mere seconds before. "Now, again, what I am supposed to do with all this?"

* * *

A week later, Arlas stared at Wrex in confusion. "You desire what?"

Wrex rolled his eyes, and leaned against the lander. "The twins have been looking for someone for me, and they finally found him. He holds something important to me, and I want to get it back. We are arriving at the system tomorrow, and hitting the base he is at. I want you to slip into the base before we hit it, and find that item."

Arlas stared at Wrex, noting that the request sounded just as insane as before. Yes, it made a certain kind of sense, but the fact the alien trusted him to secure an important item, apparently some kind of ancient relic, seemed completely nonsensical to him. Ancient relics were always powerful, and never to be touched by another race if possible. He knew of at least three planets the Eldar had invaded to get artifacts from, killing the inhabitants even if they hadn't known the artifact was there.

He waited a moment for Wrex to reveal he had been trying to prank the Eldar, but Wrex just gave him an expectant grin. After a moment, he sighed. "Fine. Though what you expect me to do with these incomprehensible computer systems is a mystery."

He gave Arlas a grin, and whacked him on the shoulder, nearly knocking the Eldar over. "Don't waste a vorcha over it, Tali will be linking to you through your tool, and will deal with all the fiddly stuff. You just have to not get seen, and go where the girl tells you."

Wrex suddenly frowned, and leaned forward, suddenly no longer amused. "Also, I am kinda fond of the quarian, so if you hurt her, I will break you."

Arlas knew the two had bonded a couple days ago after they had both gone with the Twins to clear a derelict ship they had encountered. It had been swarming with the cybernetically enhanced corpses, and the Twins had been cut off from the two when a stack of crates had collapsed. According to what they had already found in the ship's logs, the human ship had been moving supplies and workers somewhere, when they had encountered some of Saren's geth. The geth had boarded the ship, and killed all the people on board, turning them into husks. The human crew were still going over the data recovered from the ship, hoping to get a hint on what Saren's plans were.

Arlas simply gave the krogan a flat stare, which admittedly wasn't much different from the neutral look he had been giving him, before turning back to his meditations. Wrex simply snorted, projecting a feeling of being disheartened, before stomping toward the section of the hangar he had claimed. Ten minutes later, he was yanked out of his exercises as Gemling spoke from the side. "I need your omnitool, museum escapee."

She had started calling him that when he had refused to cease calling her Gemling, and frankly he didn't mind. It was mildly amusing to watch her fume about the nickname. He simply nodded to a small table nearby, which held two pieces of local equipment, his omnitool and a local handgun he had disassembled to examine. She ignored the handgun, and only spent a moment typing, before turning back. "I modified your omnitool, it will do what we need for the job."

Arlas simply nodded, trying to hold the immaterium orb steady, but it suddenly collapsed, and the temperature spiked significantly. Arlas rolled away from the center of the circle, and waited for the energy to fully disperse. Tali watched the unusual result of his meditations, before glancing at the Eldar. "Is that supposed to happen, or are you just having an off day?"

Arlas resumed his position in the middle of the circle, the heat was fleeting and quickly dispersed and nothing was attracted by the discharge, but didn't glance at the quarian. "Control is refined through repetition, especially for those who lack innate skill with a talent. I have considerable capacity for immaterium manipulation, but little talent. Now, I must focus."

Tali glared at him, before stalking off, which made him smile slightly, so easy to toy with.

* * *

Tali got across the hangar, and glanced back at the Eldar, before smirking to herself. "Heh, too easy."

Wrex looked up from the weapons bench, before gesturing her over. "What has you so perky?"

Tali's body language spoke of amusement and pleasure. "He just let me make the additions to the omnitool. All I needed was a priority communication line. What I got was root admin access."

Wrex choked, before giving her an amused look. "Just be smart about it. Now, I promised to show you are trick or two about shotguns the krogan know, and you were to show me a few the quarians know. Let's get to the really fun part."

Tali laughed. "Maybe for you, but you are a crusty old krogan. I am a quarian, the root access is far more fun, lets me see what he is really looking at when he says he is doing 'research.' But shotguns are a good second."

Wrex laughed softly. "Let me know what he is looking at too. Always good to know what people are interested in."

* * *

The next day, Arlas was in the hangar, preparing the lander for its flight. Yol'Pvera had complained about one of the engines feeling 'sticky,' which could be several things, so he was arm deep in the engines, seeing what was wrong. Yol'Pvera was listening to the briefing, but most of his participation was to get in, find the relic, and then kill anyone that approached it. Most of the ground party was coming, only Kaidan was sitting this out, as he was suffering from what the other humans called 'a migraine of epic proportions.' Now, if only he knew what a migraine was, he might be able to determine if the human male was sick, suffering from something else, or suffering a sudden bout of cowardice.

After a small pause, he conceded it was likely not the last, he had fought beside the human male several times, and never seen him falter on the field. The human was a bit dull and boring out of battle, but then again, most humans were to an Eldar. Done contemplating the human, he resumed checking the pieces of the engine. After a few minutes, he had pulled the neutron exciter module out, and was carefully pulsing warp energy through it, cleaning the slight build up of 'goop' from the innards. He frowned at the accumulated slime-like substance before he finished burning it out, trying to remember the official name the mechanics had for it, as well as figure out why it was building up so fast.

His musing were interrupted by the elevator clanking as it started moving. Yol'Pvera let him know the briefing was finally finished, so he carefully replaced the part, and headed for the armory of the lander, to finish getting into his armor. While his armor didn't inhibit his dexterity and flexibility much, it did a little, and made it harder to carefully remove pieces of the engine.

He was quickly dressed, and remembering the mission grabbed his sword, twin pistol, flamer, and the death spinner for a change. After a few seconds of consideration, he grabbed a trio of grenades, and a couple webs of explosives. The fact that Wrex had claimed everything was in sealed chests in a warehouse caused him to pick closer ranged weapons than he normally did, and to leave the fusion gun and long rifle behind. Once he was done preparing, he checked the seats once more, before opening the ramp, and heading to the cockpit. Once again, he was grateful to Singer building the lander so that he could get into the cockpit from inside the ship, rather than having to get in through the cockpit canopy from the outside.

It took nearly a quarter of an hour for the last person to arrive, Ghost, and Arlas gratefully put the lander on course for the planet. He tapped the omnitool, having finally figured out, thanks to Gemling, how to activate and deactivate the communication function of the tool. "Twins, where to?"

The Twins sent a map of the planet with a marker on the surface and another in the space above it. He relayed the location to Yol'Pvera, before fully interfacing with the lander. He felt the lander slip into the atmosphere methane and helium, feeling the thick air slide across the hull with barely a ripple of disturbed air. Ten minutes later, he was circling the compound, getting a good view of the 'warehouse,' and swearing. He activated his comm, as he manipulated the view on the lander's door to show the large compound with four defense turrets. He was fairly certain they could take the turrets out before they could fire once, but that would alert everyone in the base. "Twins, what do you want to do? Turrets. They have not detected us yet."

He was at five kilometers out, and the turrets weren't reacting to the ship, thanks to the holo-field. After a few minutes of consideration, soft Twin responded. "You have a co-pilot. Can she set down behind a hill, let you go ahead to scout, find the armor, and then take out the turrets?"

Arlas didn't bother checking with Yol'Pvera, who was extremely offended at the implication she needed Arlas' help to fly the lander. "She can."

Yol'Pvera was already landing the ship, even as Twins ordered. "Then that is what we will do. Tali, do a secure comm check. And then see about shutting down the pirate's sensors if you can."

Arlas disconnected from the lander, taking a couple seconds to orient himself now that his senses were so much more… limited. After recovering, he paused in the troop bay to ensure everyone had a sealed helmet, before opening the ramp. He checked with Yol'Pvera for where the base was, before activating his cloak and starting toward it. It was a two kilometer walk, as Yol'Pvera didn't wish to get spotted by the base, and took him about ten minutes to walk it. As he started down the slope toward the base, Tali contacted him. "Arlas, Joker just reported another ship in the system, heading directly toward the base. Should be there in about half an hour."

Arlas swore, before climbing to the top of the last small hill, and looking at the base. He tapped his tool. "Entering base, don't call unless important. Ping if you need to talk, and wait for me to call you."

Arlas closed the line, and then set the omnitool to vibrate instead of emit noise, before approaching the base, slowly and cautiously. He couldn't see any guards outside, but that didn't mean there weren't any.

A quarter of an hour later, Arlas had finally gotten into the base as several beings came out, to begin uncovering a concealed landing pad. Finally inside, he began stalking the base, and quickly discovered a problem. He got into a small storage room, and sent a call to the Twins. "Ground area is a fortress, not a warehouse. Lift leading down, but no way to access. Seen two dozen guards already, all turians, and a dozen machine walkers, and two larger machine walkers, several concealed and exposed turrets. Seeking way down."

He closed the comm as he finished reporting, and began making his way slowly across the base to the lift. The upper area was a large airlock and decontamination chamber, connected to a wide tunnel that had a pair of turrets concealed in the ceiling, then a larger area where most of the guards were. There were small storage room off to either side of the large checkpoint, and most of the guards had some kind of cover relative to the tunnel leading to the airlock. He took his time moving along the edge of the room, slowly and carefully, and soon arrived at the lift without anyone noticing him. He then settled in to wait for the lift.

About five minutes before the ship was supposed to arrive, the lift finally pinged, before the door opened, and the two guards facing the door saluted the turian that walked out. "Sir, the Blood Pack will be here momentarily. The ship is on final approach now."

The turian nodded, his black and red armor standing out in the bright lights of the checkpoint room. "Any other problems? Sensors reported a ghost contact at range a half hour ago, but nothing before or since."

The guard shook his head. "No sir, nothing to report."

The leader nodded absently as he turned and entered the elevator, and Arlas slipped into it at the same time, discovering four guards waiting for the leader. The leader pushed the button to take the elevator down, and the elevator gave a loud buzz. Every guard in the outer room immediately turned and approached the elevator with drawn weapons, while the five in the elevator immediately checked their omnitools. The leader stepped back to put his back against the wall, while the other guards got back to back.

Arlas froze, frowning in his helmet, realizing they knew he was here. He watched the two pairs of guards back slowly out of the elevator, covering every corner, while the other guards watched them. Arlas was mildly impressed at the sheer preparedness and paranoia their actions showed, and barely noticed the leader tapping his omnitool. Suddenly the elevator filled with red beams, laser emitters embedded in the ceiling lighting up. The beams did no damage, but arguably that was the only mercy, as the lasers hit his cameleoline cloak, and immediately stopped.

"Oh, Crone's breath."

Every guard immediately turned toward the dead spot in the beams, and opened fire, even as Arlas dove to the side, activating his jump pack. He disappeared into a swirl of darkness and lightning, reappearing just under the elevator and dropping down the shaft. It was a short drop, only a few dozen meters, but he still activated his jump pack. The jump did as it always did, canceling the momentum of anything that entered it, and he landed safely at the bottom. A quick glance at the walls revealed the door, and he quickly jumped again. The guards had to be preparing, and he quickly found he was only half correct when he landed.

There were no guards in the hall he had landed in, but there was another large machine, and four hidden turrets, two in the ceiling and one on each wall. He swore at the opposition, nothing he could fight with his current loadout, and jumped again, aiming to land in the room beyond the machine. This time, he landed to cries of surprise and alarm, and sprinted deeper into the room. He saw almost a dozen guards trying to aim at him as he sprinted into the room, and dozens upon dozens of crates and containers. The warehouse was fair sized, at least five hundred meters long and fifty meters to each side, but Arlas could easily reach up and touch the ceiling. He idly noted the warehouse was well lit and organized, enough to make him hate the person in charge. No dark areas to lurk, no winding paths, and all the containers were either tightly packed into shelves or resting on the ground if they were tall enough to reach the ceiling. At the end of each aisle, a massive blast door stood, but one he could see was open, and on the other side was a small room, barely big enough to hold a statue of some kind, and the door quickly closed, preventing him from getting a good view.

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to ambush, nowhere to make a stand. At least, nowhere if one wasn't an Eldar. For Arlas, it was a matter of activating his cloak again, stepping into one of the aisles, and then jumping back toward the front. He landed safely, though he could feel the jump pack heating up on his back, a sure sign it was being stressed too much, but he was grateful that the turians were so orderly, it made gauging the jumps easy. He watched the turians sprint past, too focused on where they last saw him to realize he could freely teleport, and smiled, before activating his omnitool, and sending a message, two words. "Hard contact."

The twins had given him some short codes to use, the one he had sent meant he was actively fighting. He would likely get some pranking and teasing over getting caught, but how was he to know about the defenses the locals had? Even the Twins and Ghost hadn't been able to find anything about the base. So instead he would get to play with the turians as they got to where he had been, and quickly discovered he wasn't in the aisle, firing their assault rifles and shotguns down the straight passages to confirm it. He sighed, grumbling about intelligent guards. He actually grumbled to himself as the guards all headed back to the lift, and dug in, helmets on, as the machine clanked in. He couldn't see anything, but his ears told him the guards were slowly moving forward.

Arlas moved down the aisle, and wedged himself into the tiny corner near the blast door. There was a slight clear spot near it, and as he settled down and focused on his hearing, he heard the leader issuing orders aloud. "Everyone, use the laser targeting system, keep in pairs and don't sweep ahead. YMIR 3, stay here, engage all unknowns."

Arlas swore, and took a deep breath. Sweeping teams would be able to eventually wear him down; best to strike now. He drew the flamer pistol in his left hand, and gathered some warp energies, before sprinting to the middle aisle. He slid to a stop, the cloak's distortion field confusing the guards long enough to let him view their position, but the machine immediately reacted, leveling its right arm at him. Arlas warp jumped as the machine started firing a machine gun concealed in the arm, and landed behind the machine.

Directing the gathered warp energies in his hand, he then threw the energies into the machine's back. The warp energies didn't even react to the local's shields as they bypassed them, and burned right through the armor plating, making a head sized hole in the back of the machine. As it droned that its armor was compromised, Arlas shoved his flamer pistol into the hole, and pulled the trigger as he drew his twin pistol with his free hand. The machine ignited immediately, flames spewing from its joints as its innards melted, before it slowly toppled to slam into the decking. Arlas leveled both of his pistols at the foolishly clumped turians, as they desperately scattered, some dashing further into the warehouse, others rolling to the sides, and a couple turning and frantically trying to bring their weapons to bear.

Arlas simply fired both pistols, hosing the two trying to fight with both the flamer and the twin pistol, before sweeping both weapons to one side, then the other, immolating and shredding the turians that hadn't had been sixteen opponents and a large war machine fighting him, now it was six turians, ten corpses, and a burnt shell of a machine. Even better, the leader was still intact, having sensibly ran when the teleporter had reappeared behind him.

Arlas took cover at one of the nearby container stacks, and activated his communicator. "Twins, Arlas. The local leader is isolated on the lower level with five guards. Significant number of containers here preventing maneuvering, will try to keep the leader alive. At least ten turrets between my location and the exterior, two large machines the leader called YMIR, and a dozen and a half guards in the top area currently. Also, meeting a group called Blood Pack soon. Advise speed."

Arlas heard the twins swear, before telling him they were coming, and then he snapped his head to one side out of reflex as a couple shots screamed by. The Eldar then leaned out before returning the favor with his pistol. He was stalling, not trying to kill them. At least, not yet. He traded fire with the turians for a moment, neither side willing to charge, or at least not since he knew they were using laser targeting that his cloak couldn't absorb, and they knew he had a flame thrower. He did make a mental note of the weakness, so the cloaks could be improved.

After a moment, he stepped deeper into cover, as the six turians all started firing, showering the crate he was behind with bullets, and he quickly realized that they were trying to suppress him. The thought made him frown, before he reached for his pouches. After a second of deliberation, he pulled out some of his explosive webbing, infused it with a touch of warp energy to designate how it should detonate, reforming into an area sweeping mine. He then placed it at his feet facing the door in, before activating his now cooled jump generator, and jumped a few aisles forward. He landed and then moved the edge, firing the flamer to incinerate another two turians before they could move backwards, before turning back to the entrance.

After a few seconds, he saw the lock change from red to orange before quickly flashing green, and smirked as the door opened revealing a half dozen turian guards. They guards all fired at where he had been seconds before, until the explosive webbing went off at a surge of warp energy from Arlas, engulfing the turian squad. Arlas smirked, as suddenly the base rocked slightly. The turians in the warehouse all paused, before suddenly his omnitool buzzed and the Twins spoke. "Arlas, the leader just surrendered, and the Blood Pack are down. Don't kill anyone else if they aren't hostile."

Arlas sighed in vexation, before switching his flamer for his sword, and activating his external speakers. "Are you surrendering? If so, all weapons on the ground, then approach the hall in. The only one my squad leader wants alive is the leader, and I have no orders about condition, just that he has to be alive."

After a moment, one of the turians yelled back. "Weapons down, we are coming out. Don't shoot."

Arlas watched all four turians march out, single file, hands raised over their heads, he had them stop and sit with their backs to the wall beside the door, admiring the burnt or blasted corpses of their fellow pirates, mercenaries or whatever they thought of themselves. Or perhaps they were examining the destroyed large machine, neither result meant anything to him. After a few seconds, he turned to the leader. "Deactive the defenses and unlock everything. And tell the guards upstairs to surrender as well."

The leader complied, though he did stare at the sword for a moment. About five minutes later, the Twins and Wrex came in, and Wrex stopped to glare at the turian leader, who had removed his helmet at some point. "Well Tonn, I gave you a chance to give my armor back to me. Now I am costing you a lot more."

The turian sneered, and Arlas reflected on the fact he was now much better at identifying aliens' moods just from expressions. "What are you babbling about Wrex, I thought you had hired the Pack as an intermediary."

Wrex sneered right back. "And why would I hire those useless pyjacks for that? Wait, is that why those soft plates were here?"

Tonn just sighed, before looking at the Twins. "The armor is in the seventh aisle, in the sealed vault. Is that all you are here for?"

Arlas couldn't help but notice that Tonn kept shooting him suspicious glares but only after Arlas had flipped his cloak back to let the turians see the flamer pistol. The other three kept an eye on his hands, but Tonn kept looking at the Eldar's armor. Arlas turned his head slightly, so he was staring right at the turian leader, and frowned as the turian flinched slightly. After a moment of contemplation, he drew his sword, and approached the leader.

Joannis was the first to notice the Eldar's shift of attitude. "Arlas? What is wrong?"

The Eldar stopped in front of the turian leader and brought his sword to rest edge down on his shoulder. "You have something. Something that belongs to my people. Where is it?"

The turian's tone remained level, but his mind became frantic even as he replied. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Arlas stared, before pressing down, sending a trace of energy to the blade, and it became to slowly slice through the shoulder plating. "You are lying. Your words are steady, but your mind is awash with fear. Talk, and I will simply recover that which belongs to my people with no further harm to you, from me, than what you take encouraging you to talk. Make me look, and I will... indulge myself."

The leader looked up at him, before sneering. " _Svern_ shit. Biotics can't read minds. You are just shooting in the mist."

Arlas hummed to himself, before heading to the aisles. Maintaining an empathetic link, especially as he moved away, was difficult, but it paid off, as he passed nine aisles before the turian's discomfort spiked. He paused, and glanced down both side, before frowning to himself. Something was off about this aisle, and it took a half minute before what was wrong suddenly jumped out at him; it lacked a reinforced vault door at the end. He did a quick check of the next and previous aisles, as well as down the opposite side, and all five of those had one, so he activated his omnitool. "Twins, does the leader have anything he wants to say before I move again?"

There was a pause, before Jaclyn got back to him. "No, but he did tell Wrex where his armor was."

Arlas chuckled darkly. "Then ask him why corridor ten on the left side lacks a vault at the end."

He closed the channel before walking to the end of the aisle, and as he got closer, he could just barely make out a seam in the wall, about the same size as the vaults. Which meant this might be a hidden door. A couple quick slashes cut a nice large hole, and he failed to activate any alarms, which meant there was something on the other side. A quick moment of work, and he glanced inside, before he turned on the omnitool again. "Twins, got a disassembled obelisk like the one that grabbed Lioness when we first met. Not what I am looking for, but might be important."

He could hear yelling from the front of the storage area, but headed back and then deeper. He found another three hidden vaults, one containing two long, thin statues with tendrils from their jaws, reclining against cylinder like thrones, another containing some kind of laboratory, and the last was full of crates. As he got to the end of the warehouse, having long since released the link to the mercenary leader, he paused, wondering why the last row was filled with crates blocking the path. Everything else was ordered to the point of compulsion, but here the crates had been haphazardly piled in the walkway.

A glance back toward the entrance, now several hundred meters away according to his rangefinder, showed the three Council Spectres were surrounding the leader, and while he couldn't see the turian or hear anything, he knew the leader was likely wishing he had just spoken up. He always felt that way when the Eldar females did the same thing to him back home. He just shook his head, and started climbing over the boxes, heading toward where the vault should be.

The boxes were ungainly, and several shifted as he moved, so the journey took several minutes to get to where the vault was, even for the Eldar. Once he was there though, he knew he was onto something.

He could feel something in the vault reacting to him.

He looked over the door, before trying diplomacy one last time. "Twins, does our prisoner wish to tell me anything about the last vault, or do I just get to cut my way in?"

Tali quickly cut in on the conversation. "Museum escapee, wait. The schematics on his omnitool show that vault is far more protected, has its own power source, and can destroy everything inside if opened or breached improperly. I am trying to decode the files, just give me a few minutes. This vault doesn't have an inventory, so the Twins want you to wait. You could be destroying something very useful in it."

Arlas rolled his eyes under his helmet, before sitting on one of the crates. He spent the time he had to wait trying to identify the aura of whatever was in the vault, but all he could tell was that it wasn't aware, so it wasn't a spirit stone. After about fifteen minutes, Gemling finally called him again. "Alright, here is the code to get in, I have bypassed the other external defenses, the keypad code input is eight, six, seven, five, three, zero, niner."

Arlas paused as he heard laughter coming from someone with Tali as someone else asked if the other password was 'swordfish,' whatever that was, but the communication channel quickly closed, so he simply stood and approached the wall. He glanced around for a keypad, and noted mostly hidden behind a crate. He punched the code Gemling had given him in, and watched the wall slide silently up into the ceiling, revealing a short hallway. He rolled his eyes, before entering the revealed hall. The wall slid shut behind him, and another slid open in front of him.

Arlas froze at the item displayed along the back wall, in the place of honor and prominence, not even registering the tables and stands along the sides of the room. All he saw was the stand, and his power burned into existence around him. He snarled in all consuming rage, before turning and blasting the outer wall out of the way. He could only snarl again as the inner wall slammed shut, and the inner defenses came online.

He glanced around quickly, his vision still tinted with red, and spotted nearly a dozen flamer nozzles protruding from concealed mounts. Even as the turrets started their pilot lights, he was flinging balls of warp energy at the weapons, all he could do offensively with his power. Only the last one got a gout of flame, but Arlas' psyker shields, built into his armor and fueled by rage, fully stopped the attack, before a last ball of warp fire obliterated the turret. His omnitool gave several loud pings, but in his anger he could barely hear it.

Another glance at the stand, and his rage soared again, before he gestured toward the wall blocking his exit, blowing it out. He took several steps forward, before spotting the crates blocking his path. He wanted to howl in fury, but it was slowly coming to him that he was out of control, and he needed to restrain his impulses before they consumed him. His power still swept the crates in front of him away, flinging them toward the far side of the warehouse, his rage in control as he stalked toward the turian leader. He needed answers, and the turian would either provide them, or Arlas would burn them from his mind.

 _A/N - And what do you think Arlas spotted, that so drove him to a rage? Read, favorite, follow, and most importantly, enjoy. Also, throw a vote at the poll, and leave a review._


	15. Rage and Rogue VIs

**Chapter 15 - Rage and Rogue VIs**

 _A/N - I used the cutscenes to determine the relative power levels of the incandescent_ _state, so blame Bioware for giving me the idea. However, there are drawbacks, so don't expect everyone to go incandescent_ _for every single opponent. That would be silly._

 _Also, with this chapter, 100k+ total words, making this my first story, on FF at least, to get that far. Another important milestone to celebrate._

" _The Emperor protects!" - Space Marines after a squad of 9 survives 15 wounds (enough to kill the squad and half another again), with only three casualties. To the Warp with 4+ armor saves on 'basic' faction troops._

 _Also, next week the current poll will close, so get your votes in now!_

Joannis' head snapped up at the sound of a scream of rage, and an explosion. Then there had been an alarm, and after another moment, just long enough to make her wonder what Arlas had done to activate the purge defenses, as well as how she would report his death, when a second explosion resounded through the chamber. The aisle at the very back of the room suddenly blasted its contents to the other side, like someone had flung an impossibly powerful shockwave through it, and Arlas walked out into the center aisle. She heard Jaclyn swear softly, and both suddenly understood why he kept saying biotics seemed so limited to him.

Both of the twins were familiar with the biotic state called _incandescent_ , where one literally manifested their biotic potential as an aura around them, significantly heightening a person's abilities at the cost of completely exhausting them after only one or two biotic abilities, or even killing them. The asari had several stories of their people performing legendary feats under such a state, including one who had deflected a falling cruiser with just her own biotics, though the strain of the feat had immediately killed her as her brain hemorrhaged every blood vessel in it. Many believed the stories were at best exaggerations, if not outright fabrications. Both knew the state existed, having done it themselves, and that it was brought on by either extreme emotions, anger being the most common, or by extreme stress, which increased the likelihood of the _incandescent_ state killing the biotic. What the _incandescent_ state could not do was alter reality by itself, it needed to be focused and then discharged.

Arlas was literally surrounded by energy, not the normal white blue of an _incandescent_ human biotic or the deeper blue of an asari biotic, but a painful white 'not-light' that burned the eyes, like looking directly into the heart of a blazing star. The aura also wasn't roughly spherical, instead it looked more like undulating tendrils or tentacles, idly waving in an imaginary breeze. But what caused her twin's oath was the fact that anything that the tendrils touch deformed and melted, like under a plasma cutter, but only the things directly touched, or more accurately, encased.

Joannis shook off her shock, and realized Arlas was nearly to them, and was focused only on the turian leader, and while she normally she could barely guess his mood, his current one was clearly one of rage. That was almost as shocking as him being _incandescent_ , considering the crew still had a running bet about whether he felt or just simulated emotions, but she forced herself in front of him, blocking him from getting to Tonn Actus. "Arlas, stop! We need him alive."

The Eldar didn't even pause, instead gesturing widely, causing several of the incandescent tendrils to collapse together, forming a single broad surface which knocked several shelving units over. Realizing he wasn't going to stop and that he was consumed by his _incandescence_ , she did the only thing she could think of that wouldn't risk turning that _incandescent_ state on her.

She hit him with a stasis. Arlas immediately froze, and the glowing _incandescent_ aura collapsed, causing her to sigh in relief, before turning to her twin. "Jaclyn, get Tonn topside with everyone else, now."

Wrex glanced at her before snorting, watching her carefully. "And I take it you plan to stay here and try to calm him down? Count me in, would be a hell of a fight, if it came down to it. And you could use the help."

Jaclyn gave Wrex a glare, before yanking the turian smuggler upright. "Come on, you three as well. Into the elevator. Icivia, you too."

The turian spectre helped guard the prisoners as Jaclyn sent her a glare, promising vengeance on both her and the Eldar if something happened and she wasn't there for it. Jaclyn simply shrugged one shoulder, not turning away from the Eldar, who had been in stasis for nearly twenty seconds at this point, and Joannis' record for a stasis was half a minute. She relaxed a bit as the elevator began groaning its way to the top. Now she just had to deal with the enraged Eldar.

* * *

Arlas managed to get ahold of his rage as the turian leader vanished, replacing it with confusion even as he absently noted that several others had vanished as well, and the Lioness was in a different position. He quickly ran through the possibilities in his head. It wasn't cloaking, these races were in their infancy with that technology, and they had no skill with teleportation technology, other than using biotics to 'quickly' move where they had line of effect.

He blinked, before righting himself, and looking around at the devastation that had been an orderly warehouse a few moments before. The shelves to his left were knocked over, he was standing on a scorch mark, and several shelves behind him on both sides had collapsed, the crates showing signs of being partially melted. Wrex was now behind him in one of the aisles, chuckling slightly with his arms crossed in front of him, clearly not holding a weapon, and Joannis, sorry, Lioness was in front of him. She still hadn't quite earned the right to have him use her name yet.

He sighed, before turning back to the human. "Where is the turian?"

Jaclyn simply gave him a raised eyebrow, carefully keeping her hands behind her. That detail showed she was still taking his previous advice about interacting with Eldar serious. "Are you in control, or do you need another time out in a stasis bubble?"

Or maybe she really was that worried about his rage. "Is there a noticable difference in how I am acting? Yes? Then yes, I am in full control again. Now, where. Is. The. Turian?"

Joannis glared at his less than respectful answer. "I think we have a disconnect here. I am the captain of the vessel that you are travelling on. So far, I have been exceedingly tolerant of your antics, but you just seriously fucked up a crime scene. Now, you are going to tell me what you found, and maybe I will be helpful. Or you can go around me, and I can have you left here in the system. Which will it be, Pathfinder?"

Arlas paused, looking down at the tiny mon-keigh, and took a long moment, for an Eldar, to answer. While to the mon-keigh, it seemed he answered quickly, in reality he was examining his past actions, and realizing that possibly, just maybe, he had been indulging in his arrogance a bit much. So he simply nodded slightly, conceding the dominance spat to the human. Though if any of his kin found out about it, he would deny it, and then gut the mon-keigh that told them. "I found a suit of my people's armor in the room. The helmet is shattered, and more importantly, the…"

He paused, realizing that the spirit stone was likely something that could be used against the Eldar, and changed his answer, slowly enough for the two listening, as well as a quarian listening through a comm channel, unbeknownst to all three of them, to notice. "There is something else missing, something I swore to protect even if it killed me. But it is missing from that armor, and combined with the state of the helmet…"

He paused again. "If he somehow managed to kill an Eldar, especially one of that path, I will eat my tabard. I suspect he found it, and might have sold that… missing armor part to someone."

This pause was longer, before the Eldar pulled his helmet and attached it to his hip before pulling out his braid, and redoing it. He was having to stand still and think, and that always made him twitchy, so he used his hands to hide that. "My people have murdered _planets_ to get a single one of those parts back, and if they come back and find your people hindered my recovery of it… They will react as if you actively helped him. Regardless of whatever else you do. We are… very protective of said piece."

It was a partial truth, as no Eldar was ever without their spirit stone, in armor or not, and while most armors had several _similar_ crystals, each Eldar only carried one spirit stone, or at most two, unless they were using filled stones to amplify their psyker powers. Arlas' carried his in a small armored pouch on the inside of his lower back armor, a place very unlikely to be deliberately hit. Breaking a spirit stone was difficult, and usually happened when the Eldar was hit with anti-tank weapons, but many believed in not taking chances with their souls. The alternative was getting their soul raped, tortured, and finally consumed for eternity by 'She Who Thirsts.'

Joannis stared in surprise, apparently not expecting him to just bare his throat to her. "If it is so important, why is it so identifiable? Tali said the defenses activated seconds after you entered that room."

He shook his head. "I have already said too much. You are just going to have to trust me when I say that it would be immediately obvious to any Eldar that saw the armor that the piece is missing. Also, there is the obvious question of where the rest of warrior is, where is their squad, and how did they get here? My people aren't native to your universe, apparently, and the armor isn't worn by warriors known to go alone like myself. The turian has a lot to answer for, and the sooner he answers, the sooner I know what happened to them."

Joannis nodded absently, hopefully understanding why he had reacted as he had, even if she had been slightly misled. She glanced toward the back of the warehouse. "Are you bringing the armor with us?"

He frowned, before nodding. "Yes, aspect warrior armor is always recovered if possible. I can store it in my lander, though depending on what we discover after interrogating the pirate, I might need some storage space on the ship. If everything goes to the warp, I can destroy the replaceable pieces, and just recover the important parts."

Another nod. "Can I take a look at it?"

Arlas paused, before nodding with extreme reluctance. "Yes though do not touch it, you will cause the biolocks to activate, and I would feel bad if you accidentally got killed while everyone thought you were talking me down. If you could tell who ever is with the turian to start asking questions, preferably while holding big guns, I would be grateful."

The Eldar turned, and headed back to the important vault. As Joannis and Wrex followed, Wrex spoke up. "So, still thinking about that swordsmanship tournament?"

Arlas rolled his eyes, and put his helmet back on, taking care to tuck his hair in properly. "No, why would I?"

"So the asari don't slander you and your people on it? They have done it before."

Joannis snorted. "Did it to us humans, calling us 'too barbaric for refined swordsmanship, fit only for hack and slash,' the first year because we weren't informed in time. Needless to say, a LOT of noted asari swordswomen got beat for that comment in the next tournament. Humans didn't make the quarterfinals, but none of the asari did either that year."

Arlas groaned, suddenly realized he was backed into yet another corner. "Even _if_ I wanted to enter, I refuse to do it on someone else's sponsorship. The Eldar are beholden to no one. And I refuse to give the appearance of it."

Wrex laughed. "Good for you. Keep that attitude, and a lot of krogan might like you."

Arlas gave Wrex a glare. "Don't you have armor to collect?"

The burly krogan gave a bored shrug. "It isn't THAT important. I just promised on my grandfather's grave to retrieve it. It isn't going anywhere, and I am in no hurry to go home. All I am going to do is throw it in my locker, and let it sit there. It is an old piece of shit, I certainly am not going to use it."

Arlas gave Wrex a confused look. "But you said it was a relic."

Wrex's reply was accompanied by an indifferent shrug. "Means it is obsolete."

Arlas sighed, as he turned the corner, and headed for the room. He stopped at the edge, and gestured inside. "I can see it from here, and you might find some of the other things in there more important."

He glanced at the armor inside, before wincing slightly. The armor set belonged to a Shadow Spectre aspect warrior of his craftworld, as evidenced by the colors, which meant the Lost Host had been here at some point. But the damage to the armor was… extensive. The helmet was on a nearby table, or rather the two dozen or so fragments that were once the helmet. The arching back plate, which had once protected the head of the warrior from sudden movements and attacks at unusual angles, had snapped off. Both of the shoulder vents for the twin propulsion jet mounts on the back were completely crushed, and the miniature anti-gravity engines were also flattened somewhat.

The breastplate of the armor was cracked in half, and the mount where the spirit stone should have been, over the left breast of the warrior, was empty, though the psyker energies from it still lingered, which had been what he had sensed while approaching the vault. The armor that had covered the abdomen was simply gone, though most of the arm and leg plates seemed intact, except for a single boot that was crushed. The weapon of the Shadow Spectres, a prism rifle that was designed to destroy enemy tanks, was bent halfway down the barrel, and the back half had been cut open, dumping some of the innards on the table, but most of the rifle's insides had simply melted. Even worse, he could feel that the wraith seed, which was what the armor was grown from, in the back of the chest plate was damaged, though he thought it might be salvageable.

He didn't think his inspection of the armor's damage had taken long, but Joannis spoke, having had enough time to talk to her twin. "Jaclyn said the leader started singing like a canary after getting out of sight of you. On condition of you staying the hell away from him, he is willing to give us everything, including who sold him the armor. He said he got it in that condition, and simply put it on the stand, from a local bandit warlord, named Darius, though you don't use his title at your own peril, according to Tonn. He also unlocked his databases, which gave us some new information on Saren, which will be useful. So if you see something on the inventory Tali is putting together that you need, go ahead and grab it.

"Arlas, we will hit the bandit lord as soon as we can, but it's a good ways from here. It might be some time."

* * *

A week later, Arlas was in armor, standing behind the pilot, listening to the crew behind him in the CiC. He stared out at the viewpoint, and tried to keep his anger from showing. Last he had heard about their destination was that they were still heading to deal with that bandit warlord, and the Twins had gotten a communication from their leader, one Admiral Hackett, about the leader, making the mission an official human mission. Something about the bandit lord being a rogue agent, and needing to be… pacified. He had been with these humans long enough to realize they meant 'retired,' killed and then buried, but it amused him that they had been so circumspect about it since he had been in the room.

Now, however, he knew where they were, an old record from before the Fall had shown this system, and the humans had defended it with zealous, religious, and righteous fury. It was the stellar system of Terra, cradle of humanity, and most certainly **not** the system where a bandit lord could reside. That he was the first Eldar to see this particular version of Terra would normally have excited him as a ranger, tempting him to slip his lander off the ship to go looking around, see what he could experience. But right now, he was contemplating how many people he might have to kill to get the aspect warrior's spirit stone back, as well as how long he, and he knew from examining the armor the warrior had been a rare male of his craftworld, had been held. If one of the bandits had pried it from the armor after his death, and then attached it to jewelry, they likely would have been driven mad by the Eldar soul's thoughts if they were even slightly susceptible to psyker suggestions.

So instead of venting verbally, he turned from the bridge, and headed back to the briefing room, where everyone on the specialist team were already going over the mission. He entered the briefing room, before crossing his arms. "Twins, when was I to be informed you altered course?"

The angry Twin immediately snarled back, "When convenient, and why do you care? We will get to your thief when we get there."

Arlas pulled his helmet off, slapped it against his thigh to bond it there, and stalked forward, stopping just in front of her, barely out of arm's reach, before slashing his hand across his chest, repeating the same gesture she had given him barely more than two weeks previously that had nearly made him attack her. The sudden flash of rage in Lynx's eyes told him she recognized exactly what he had done. "Because you never asked the most important question. I told you we are not from this universe, and that I am sent ahead of my craftworld. So why is there a warrior in my colors, from a warrior shrine I recognize, **HERE**?"

His question silenced the angry Twin, and he stepped back, turning to the soft Twin. "We sent a force through a few millennia ago. A few hundred thousand warriors and a few dozen ships. They were to explore what was on the other side, and report back if possible. That they left an Eldar behind is… concerning. So yes, I am **extremely** 'concerned' as to where this Darius found him. And then you fail to inform me, the expert on what to expect from Eldar and fully expecting a rescue or recovery mission, that we are diverting to visit Terra. So yes, I am **extremely** unhappy. But I am familiar enough with you to trust this is important. So please, **impress me**."

He stared at both Twins, before placing his helmet back on his head, and returning to his usual space on the wall, and waited. After a moment, the Twins shared a look, before starting. "Alright, since the last member got here before we got too far, and isn't going to start a fight, once again from the top. Our main military training facility on Luna has had its VI malfunction, and stop responding to outside controls during a training exercise. We lost twenty one marines to the base defenses, and another sixty six injured, before Command realized what was happening, realized they couldn't shut off the VI, and ordered a full retreat of the two marines platoons.

"Since then, they have sent two teams of M5s in, with no results, both teams pulling out, heavily injured, but no dead, and a team of N5s, same result though less injured. The archived VI code has already been checked by both local experts, and by a pair of salarians and a quarian hired by local programming companies for malfunctions and other flaws, and they couldn't find any.

"Which means this is possibly a crime scene, and Command doesn't believe that the base requires an orbital bombardment to correct. The VI is on a contained and closed system, so while it can't 'get out' of the base, we also can't use external electronic warfare to try and take it down."

She paused, turning back to a display behind her, showing a single structure with three smaller ones surrounding it, a tunnel from each smaller building linking them to the main one. "This is Lunar Training Facility Five, which is our target. The VI is housed in the main center building, but has backup computers in the outer structures that need to be taken out as well. The outer three structures are based off the three most common colonial outposts, and we have already fought through similar bases. The inner structure is a standard Council base layout, though some of the walls can be manually shifted to ensure the trainees are actually following procedures. The biggest problem is the underground hangar beneath the middle structure, as it contains a heavy fabricator, capable of repairing mechs, and in theory making new ones. At max capacity the base contains four Grizzly tanks, one hundred Loki mechs, two hundred flier drones, and ten YMIR heavy assault mechs. It also was used as a testing grounds of the new Maelstrom mechs, but all twelve of those were removed for a full systems check two days before the base went rogue.

"Reviewing the after action reports of the three previous attempts to retake the base, my sister and I have concluded that only one YMIR mech, forty to fifty Loki mechs, less than sixty scouting drones, and all four Grizzly tanks remain, though the VI had not used the tanks in the previous attempts to get to it. However, just because it has not used the Grizzlies before doesn't mean it **can't** use them, so Arlas will be bringing the melty gun."

Jaclyn changed the view from an overhead map to one with markers, showing their planned assault. "Our path will be to first bring in the mako to distract the base's turrets, which it has two on each smaller building and six on the main base, allowing Arlas to use his lander to strafe the turrets, removing them from the engagement. At that point, the Normandy will take overwatch position with its GUARDIAN lasers, and Arlas will join us for the offensive. While we wait for the Normandy, we will be clearing the outer hubs, and if we somehow clear all three before the Normandy shows up, Joker is picking up the tab for the specialist team the next time we are on the Citadel."

The pilot was clearly listening, as he immediately protested the threat, while most of the mon-keigh laughed at the joke at the pilot's expense. Arlas did not join in, taking deep breaths and performing the calming meditations available to all warlocks, even if they rarely did anything for him; he had always burned hot when angry, hence the nicknames the craftworld had given him, the Fool or Fickle Chance-Dancer. Thankfully, the Twins quickly got the meeting back on track. "That is the basis for the attack, but for this one we will not be going into details for each particular building, as the VI could manipulate the surroundings. Not quickly enough to cut us off, there are multiple, redundant physical safeties in place that can't be cut or disabled to prevent injuries, but it can significantly alter the building's layout. See to your equipment, and be in the hangar in thirty minutes. Squad dismissed. Arlas, remain, we need to talk."

Arlas watched everyone else leave the room, before tilting his helmeted head to one side slightly, indicating he was paying attention. Joannis gestured for Jaclyn to head out, and once they were alone, she spoke. "I realize that you are upset, but if you ever speak to me like that in public again, especially about command decisions, I will politely drop your ass off at the citadel, and have your ship removed from my hangar. If you do need to talk to me like that again, request a meeting. Are we clear?"

Arlas simply nodded curtly, before heading to the lander. As he walked to the elevator, he contacted Yol'Pvera. * _Ready the scatter-laser turrets, we will be needing them. You will be on low overwatch, and have to deal with machine clumps. They have turrets and tanks, so stay mobile._ *

His pilot sent back her understanding, informing him the ground team was already gathering in the hangar. Arlas sighed, before rolling his head, trying to relax, his anger still burning through him even as he waited on the elevator.

An hour later, the last passenger climbed into the lander, the Twins and Icivia were in the mako and already dropped on the moon, to begin their long approach of the base. Arlas had been asked to wait until they were closer to the base, before launching and approaching the base for a strafing run. As they approached the base, the scatter laser turrets concealed in the nose of the craft deployed, one on either side of the pulsar's barrel. Despite deploying the laser turrets, Arlas elected to arm the pulse lasers, as Yol'Pvera brought the lander in at several hundred kilometers per hour, staying exactly thirty meters above the ground to minimize the chance of the defenses spotting them.

Arlas ignored several people making noises of terror in the troop bay, and one krogan clearly having the time of his life as he watched the door, showing just how close they were to the ground. As they flew over the base, Arlas fired the pair of twin linked pulse lasers in sequence, as Yol'Pvera fired the turrets, getting off four shots and hitting three of the turrets, the last shot grazing the target turret, leaving a gouge and making it spark, but it was still firing at the Twin's Mako as it circled the base, returning fire.

Arlas felt craft shift, and braced for Yol'Pvera's maneuver. And she quickly proved why she had been a fighter pilot, flipping the lander over and around in a tight barrel roll, leveling out at ten meters above the ground, less than half the wingspan of the lander. This time he could hear the troops in the back scream briefly in terror, the krogan laughing even louder, and felt a flicker of irritation from Yol'Pvera, as Arlas fired the pulse lasers and the scatter lasers, destroying the remaining turrets as they tried to target the lander. * _What are those children whining about? We had plenty of room for that maneuver._ *

Arlas rolled his eyes, and reached out with his mind, sending his thought to the group as Yol'Pvera brought the lander in to drop off the troops. * _All troops, prepare to disembark._ *

As the lander got to half a meter, Arlas dropped the ramp. * _Deploy, deploy._ *

It took sixty embarrassing seconds for the last mon-keigh to exit, and Arlas reached out with his mind to include the three Spectres. * _That was absolutely terrible and an embarrassment to watch. When we finish this mission, I will be training you people on how to properly deploy from a lander. That should have taken ten seconds, not sixty._ *

Liara, or Dusk as he now called her, called him on his omnitool. "We are not Eldar, and half of us are not military."

* _Eldar civilians would have been done in five seconds, and aspect warriors would have taken two and two thirds of a second!_ *

Jaclyn cut in on the conversation. "Save it for the debrief Arlas. Everyone else, form up near the Mako, we are hitting each outer building, then the big one. Kaidan will be in charge of the Mako, Wrex on the big gun in case the VI tries to reinforce whatever defenses are inside each external building. Arlas, get your lander to one hundred meters, you are on overwatch. Once the Normandy shows up, you land and join us, as will Kaidan and Wrex."

Arlas let Yol'Pvera put the lander in a holding pattern, circling the base at the requested altitude, while Arlas kept his focus on the sensors and weapons. Not that he was expecting an attack, but inattentive Eldar had a strange tendency to quickly become dead ones. He watched the group move into the first exterior building, and about seven minutes later they exited, having found nothing defending the building, according to what he heard on the squad channel.

The squad descended into the second exterior building, and Arlas listened as, yet again, they encountered no opposition inside the outer building. Before they finished 'disabling' the servers for the VI in the second outer building, the Normandy showed up and took over overwatch. Arlas disconnected from the ship, and stepped out of the lander as Yol'Pvera dropped the bay hatch, before she quickly ascended back into the sky, this time going into a wider search pattern, while the Normandy stayed near the base. Arlas met the group coming out, and fell in. * _Shall I scout the next building ahead of the group?_ *

It was a testament of the group becoming used to him that no one jumped. The Twins shared a look, before Joannis shook her head. "No need, the VI seems to be saving all its mechs for the main building, probably in the hangar we have to transverse to get to the main server room."

Arlas' foresense immediately and suddenly screamed a warning at him, making him flinch. He noticed Gemling, Dusk, and Wrex all staring at him, but dismissed their scrutiny. * _Twins, just because the VI has not moved its mech to be encountered before doesn't mean it hasn't moved them at all._ *

For a moment, he thought he had convinced them, but then Jaclyn whirled about, rage making her say things she normally would have held back. "What did Jo **just** say to you before we left the ship?"

Arlas took a reflexive step back, but before he could defend himself, Joannis turned to him. "Apparently you weren't listening, so you are done, unless you have something to back this questioning?"

He considered her question for a moment, before simply casting his mind out, grabbing everyone within range as he lacked the skill to only grab the Twins, and showed them his memories of the past minute, in about two seconds. Specifically of the massive spike of dread and foreboding that he experienced. Once done, he let go of their minds. * _ **That**_ _is why. Otherwise I would agree with your assessment._ *

Before Lynx could explode again, Joannis spoke. "Can all Eldar get this danger spikes? And how accurate is it?"

* _All warriors learn to use the basic forms, the Farseers and most warlocks learn to actually see events. As for accuracy, the foresense is enough that one group of Eldar only use it, and almost no armor, while we rangers live and die by it. So yes, I have learned to listen to it very carefully._ *

The Twins shared a look, causing another minor surge of psyker energy that he now just ignored rather than let drive him toward madness, before the female turian spoke. She had gotten even more annoying over the weeks, but at least was being smarter about it, so she wasn't just mon-keigh. "And how many Eldar can accurately see the future?"

Arlas took his time answering the question, but the Twins were apparently deep in the non-verbal argument, so he answered. * _With perfect accuracy? No one, it is like trying to track a specific drop of water in the ocean. But if you can get a vague idea where something is going, and how decisions are made along the way affect the outcome…_ *

He trailed off, and then shrugged, not really answering her question. He had tried to underplay the ability, hopefully making it sound like the Farseers' relied on experience and only used their divining to supplement their leadership, instead of using their divining to earn experience. Thankfully, the Twins finally finished their nonverbal debate, and turned back to the group. "How often do you get these senses, and why didn't you mention them sooner?"

He gave a shrug. * _Only when something disastrous is going to occur. So I might get six on one night for one mission, then none for several years. And as for not mentioning them, I didn't think about it. Eldar are fickle, capricious xenos, and know more than they should. I simply failed to acknowledge the fact you don't already know that._ *

The Twins nodded, Jaclyn speaking first. "Fine, sorry for snapping. This week has been hell on my nerves."

That made Arlas raise an eyebrow, idly wondering what he was missing. He usually kept himself away from the mon-keigh, except for Wrex, who was amusing to verbally spar with, and Tali, who was amusing to prank. Luckily, Joannis took up the conversation before he wasted too much time wondering about what he was missing. "So here is the plan. Arlas cloaks, we open the elevator, toss in a bunch of Icivia's disposable turrets as Arlas sneaks in, then send the elevator down. The turrets will provide a distraction if something is down there, and Arlas sneaks in. If nothing is there, then we all get to taunt the Eldar for being the 'I got a bad feeling' guy."

That got a laugh from the mon-keigh, but Arlas was now wondering what he was being labeled as. He was still wondering as he activated his cloak, turned off the omnitool and got into the elevator, getting into one of the corners to avoid catching a bullet, while Icivia put her four turrets in the center of the elevator, spread out a little to avoid one explosion taking them all out.

The ride was mercifully short, and as the elevator opened, he watched the turrets twitch, moving back and forth, but nothing fired in at them. He slipped out of the elevator, and looked around. There were crates everywhere, and not the metal ones either, they were flimsy looking wood and plastic ones. Oddly enough, he noticed they had been piled to block the views of one side of the 'outpost.' He frowned at it, comparing it to the map of facility, and noticed that the side blocked was the side toward the main base, before dismissing it as an oddity. The crates were piled into rows, with three clear columns through it, one on each side, and another right up the middle. He shrugged, and reported what he found to the twins, not bothering to use his omnitool. * _Destroyable crates in rows, three columns to advance down, left, right and middle. One room side blocked off, toward center building. Advancing near blocking wall._ *

He was on the side of the room near the wall of crates, when suddenly his omnitool turned on and buzzed, informing him someone was calling him, as his danger sense suddenly seemed to tear at his mind. He reached down, yanking at the physical piece of the omnitool, a thin band that wrapped around his wrist, as he heard dozens of machines suddenly start clanking in front and to his side. Even as he finally pulled it off, he could hear weapons firing, crates shattering, and a mechanical voice speaking even as bullets hit and shattered the crates near him, "Excuse me, citizen, you aren't supposed to be here. Can I help you?"

* * *

Joannis looked around the group, idly amused at the collection of species not seen before outside ne'er-do-wells, mercenary groups, and heroes in the entertainment industry. She had a krogan battlemaster debating with a quarian protege engineer about whether pistols or assault rifles were better backup weapons, while a turian spectre and temporarily reassigned governmental security officer were discussing the pros and cons of various weapons mods off to one side. A human Systems Alliance marine was quietly cursing as she helped the other System Alliance human, this time a biotic sentinel, get his kinetic barrier to stop 'flittering,' an apparently esoteric term meaning 'varying output.' Her twin and her were the most powerful human biotics ever officially recorded by the Systems Alliance, and could give asari matriarchs a run for their biotic titles, and they were giving an asari xenoarchaeologist tips for strengthening her biotic barrier and calming her nerves. And every one of them were waiting for the only known example of the Eldar race to finish scouting, based on a 'bad feeling' he had had.

Joannis was simply passing the time with her idle musings and helping Liara, but her sister was monitoring the main building and the remaining outer building, ensuring the group didn't get ambushed. Never mind the two ships above them, both capable of leveling the base if their crew so desired.

However, it was Tali that first noticed that something changed, suddenly glancing down at her omnitool, right before Arlas sent his initial report of the internal situation in, making most of the group jump in surprise. Even after two months with him, it was still somewhat jarring to have someone else's thoughts suddenly intruding into your own, though they were starting to get used to it enough to not jump. It was only jarring when he wasn't nearby. * _Destroyable crates in rows, three columns to advance down, left, right and middle. One room side blocked off, toward center building. Advancing near blocking wall._ *

Tali however was tapping away quickly at her omnitool, muttering something under her breath, before suddenly speaking. "Everyone, check your omnitool and suit feeds are set to outbound only. Something is trying to get into our comms."

Everyone immediately ensured their equipment was set to the indicated feed, ensuring that it would only send signals, rather than accept them. Tali had suggested it before getting out of the lander, to ensure the VI didn't try anything unpleasant by hacking their equipment, then making the suits release their seals, turn off their kinetic barriers, or any number of other unpleasant things. After everyone confirmed they had, Tali shrugged. "Sorry commanders, but something was KEELAH!"

Everyone connected to the squad channel suddenly heard Arlas' omnitool do a hard ping of its location, followed very closely by both Tali and Liara jerking their heads back in shock as the Eldar's omnitool signal died. Liara spoke first, as she had been trained to act as the squad medic. "Commanders, my tool is reporting Arlas just flatlined, before it went offline."

"Commanders, his omnitool is not responding at all, not even passive systems."

Joannis didn't even glance at her twin. "Team Heavy, front of the elevator, Team Light will be right behind you, clear us a space."

Team Heavy was the hardest hitting and most durable of the group, including Wrex, Ashley, Kaidan, Jaclyn, and to round out the group they had attached Garrus, to give them some ranged punch. Team Light was herself, Liara, Tali, and then they added Icivia to give them some form of durability, and in theory Arlas was also on it, though they still had little idea how well he fought in an open battle. They had seen him several times in hit and run battles, but he didn't have proper kinetic barriers, despite him having some kind of equivalent, and also had no idea how to rate his armor. Now, however, they needed to get down there, see how bad the situation was.

As everyone stepped into the elevator, Joannis linked with Liara, putting a bubble shield up around the group. This building lacked an 'entry' room, so any troops would exit the elevator under fire during training. In retrospect, that made it perfect to ambush people, especially if someone was unable to retreat to the elevator. Once everyone was in, Jaclyn punched the large button to take them down, and everyone got ready. Barriers were overcharged, extra barriers added, armor plates were locked to give better damage reduction, omni-plating and shields were activated, and disposable turrets and drones were prepared to be spent.

The elevator opened, and the first thing everyone saw was that the room was full of crates, some intact and useable as cover for a moment, but the majority of the room was full of pieces of destroyed crates. About halfway into the room, several destroyed machines lay on the ground, but of more concern were the various mechs turning toward the group. Joannis looked over what she could see, a single YMIR, maybe two score flier drones, and a dozen and a half Loki mechs, before snapping out orders as the mechs turned toward the elevator. "Kaidan, Wrex, Tali, left side. Jaclyn, Icivia, Garrus, right side. Everyone else, with me, right up the middle. Stick to cover, now **move**."

The new groups quickly split off, moving in their respective directions as every fired at the mechs that were starting to fire back. Joannis and Liara quickly moved forward, taking cover at a still intact crate, while Ashley took cover behind a crate on the other side from them. Ashley began firing her sniper rifle, picking off the fliers as they scattered, and then switched to her assault rifle. A glance at the young asari showed she wasn't panicking, so Jaclyn pulled out her sub-machine gun, and let Liara handle the bubble shield. Both women began stripping the YMIR of its shield, recognizing it as the biggest threat.

The middle team had to relocate twice as the YMIR fired on and destroyed their cover, as the other two teams took care of the flier drones and the Loki mechs, but they finally stripped off the heavy shield as the last Loki mech exploded. Wrex's team got to a flanking position on the YMIR, and Kaidan made a report. "Got a lot of damage to the base, and a number of destroyed mechs, can't tell how many. Can say it had at least two more YMIRs, and a Grizzly."

Joannis swore, guessing that Arlas must have triggered the ambush while trying to warn them. She couldn't think of any other reason to activate his omnitool down here, though why he didn't just use his telepathy was something she would ask him if he survived. "Understood Kaidan, keep hitting that YMIR."

Joannis hit the heavy mech with a singularity, the unstable field slowly stripping its armor, and the gravity field making it difficult for the mech to properly track targets. Her twin, however, hit the unstable singularity with a warp, causing the field to violently detonate, shredding the mech. After a second, Joannis looked around. "Status?"

Jaclyn called out for her group. "Clear here."

Wrex's group suddenly started firing again, but before anyone could ask what was happening, the firing stopped, and then Wrex spoke. "Dead and done, just the way I like 'em. Pity they are metal. … Anyone else hungry?"

Joannis sighed at Wrex's antics. "Team Heavy, meet near the door to the hangar, current plan is to enter that way. Team Light, split into pairs, Tali with me. Find Arlas, or what's left of him. If he is dead, I want a body to prove it."

After a moment, Joannis got to the center section, and looked around before whistling softly to herself. As Kaidan had reported, this area was destroyed. She saw two sections of the floor were melted, one that cut the remains of a Grizzly tank in half, while the other melted section had the blasted remains of half a YMIR mech, and looked to have a couple Loki parts nearby. The last YMIR was scattered in tiny pieces around a blast mark, indicating Arlas might have blasted the YMIR's head off, causing it to overload and then detonate with amazing force. That weakness was the reason the System Alliance was making a new heavy mech, but the project had recently changed hands, after the last builder was sued for corruption and filed for bankruptcy. The new company, Jormangund, was flying through the design and testing phase, but it looked to be a year before the new heavy mech was ready for front line testing.

Bringing her attention back to the present, she turned as Tali called her name again. Seeing she had the commander's attention, Tali pointed at something, sticking out from under the half melted YMIR. "I think that might be… part of Arlas."

A quick glance showed a dark gray gauntlet with red flourishes, and a black undersuit, and Joannis felt her stomach drop. Though her stomach did settle when she spotted some alarmingly bright red blood splattered on the far side of the mech, not enough for a severed limb. She biotically lifted the remains of the YMIR, and then flung it aside, before cursing and activating her comm. "Everyone but Ashley and Wrex, find Arlas, now. We got a left arm from the mid bicep down, let's find the rest before he bleeds out."

She gave the blood splatter another look, frowning at the tiny amount, while everyone else began looking around the room. "Stay in pairs people, we might have missed a mech, and I don't need more injured. Garrus, stay with Ashley and Wrex."

Joannis finished speaking, and paused, realizing that leaving a krogan, a turian, and a Williams to guard an entrance that enemies might use could possibly backfire, literally. After a second, she dismissed the thought, trusting Ashley to be professional at very least. Garrus wouldn't start anything, and Wrex would only do whatever amused him, so he would stop before he went too far. She joined Icivia, as Jaclyn and Kaidan took one area, and Tali and Liara headed to the back of the training bunker, to disable the servers.

After a moment of looking, Kaidan reported in from near the severed limb. "Found his pistol, want us to collect it?"

Joannis didn't even pause to think. "No, leave it where it is, he said they were equipped with biolocks, and I have no intention of discovering how effective they are."

Icivia, ever the predictable Council skeptic assigned to her ship, scoffed. "Surely you don't expect him to be that paranoid?"

The human simple stared at the remains of a Grizzly tank, the middle half of the vehicle literally vaporized, leaving the front and back pieces lying forlornly on the ground. After a moment, Icivia nodded. "Fair point. Then I probably shouldn't touch his melty gun?"

The human's head snapped around so fast she actually made her neck ache, and she carefully rubbed her neck through her armor as she stared at the abandoned fusion gun, half buried under a crate with a fair sized splash of blood surrounding it, not far from where they had found his severed arm. "If he is abandoning his equipment, especially his most powerful ones, he must have been in even worse straits than I thought. He came in with his sword and long rifle as well, right?"

Icivia nodded, though Joannis couldn't help but notice she was staring at the fusion gun. "Come on, Icivia, let's go find the-"

"Keelah! Server room, Arlas is hurt bad."

 _A/N - Sorry for the ending, but no matter how I wrote it, I felt nothing I tried did justice to the idea of an injured, dazed Eldar surrounded by mon-keigh. So instead I will turn to my backup writer, your own imagination. Enjoy. :D_

 _And again, the current poll closes next chapter, so vote now. I already am planning a few more Warhammer40k characters, but this poll is for more than that._


	16. Intermission

**Intermission**

 _A/N - Just a quick check in on other places, and a couple reports to System Alliance Command about stuff. And these intermission chapters are canon to the story. Also, some of the non-canon facts are simply to fill in holes. If you have canonical evidence to the contrary, send in a PM, and get credit and a thank you in the post story author's notes Unless I am deliberately being wrong for plot reasons. Or you are an ass about it, then you get NOTHING! *cue maniacal cackling*_

 _Also, the times on when intermission chapters is kinda fluid, and may not be placed in the exact section of the story as when they occur. Like the second report in this chapter not happening for another few chapters, in spite of it appearing now._

 _And the previous poll is closed and the new one up on my profile, top of the page. By popular demand, we will be including a couple of Warhammer 40k 'friends' in the future. The audience will love them. Arlas? Not so much. He thinks you all are sadistic, and need a hobby. Like origami, work those mon-keigh fingers! Build up your dexterity until it stops embarrassing drunk octopuses, or not, if that is how you roll._

 ** _Edit (24 Dec 2017): FINE! Using the boring standard lore for Eldar evolution. Whip crackers._**

 ** _Edit (27 Dec 2017): Lore correction, and reformatting the chapter for ease of reading. Stupid site, eating my formatting._**

Subject: INFO - Eldar heavy cruiser crash site, Nirvana, Utopia System, Exodus Cluster

TO: Admiral Adam Barton of the Second Fleet;

Summary: Avoid Eldar controlled areas at all costs. They don't require external help and are slowly repairing the ship in spite of local conditions.

As per orders, I am submitting my second monthly report of the Eldar heavy cruiser crash site, and their progress toward repairing the ship.

As per the Eldar Pathfinder's request, and SA Command's recommendations, we have respected the ship's airspace of fifty kilometers, and not landed troops within two kilometers of the crash site. After watching what the ship did to four Salarian ships and a Salarian ground team that did not respect that boundary, despite most of them being under stealth conditions at the time, I can only recommend that we continue to simply ensure pirates, mercenaries and slavers don't try something stupid. Anything outside the exclusion zone is ignored, including a small prospecting vessel that developed engine problems and actually intruded slightly on the edge of the exclusion zone before the SA frigate Trafalgar managed to assist them.

The first Salarian ship attempted a high altitude stealth pass over the vessel. We detected it the two passes previously due to a chance visual observation by one of our probes, before it tried to get inside the exclusion zone for a closer pass, at which point the vessel fired once to destroy the Salarian scout vessel's engines, then twice more time to blow open the rest of the ship, killing the crew. We suspect, based on later incidents, that the eldar used point defense weapons for this interception, either not having an active, powered broadside weapon on that arc, or not having repaired it yet. It crashed in the ground exclusion zone, and the Eldar did not return comm requests to land and check for survivors. After two hours of neither movement or comms from the crash zone, I elected to simply notify local command of the incident.

A week later, another Salarian vessel attempted to land near the vessel, but came within the exclusion zone, and was vaporized by a single weapon discharge this time, which was when we noticed the salarian vessel. No significant debris survived the strike, so I reported the incident to local command again.

The next week we had a Salarian 'trader' in the area, and we observed a couple Salarian ground teams landing outside the aerial exclusion zone, and then marching toward the ground exclusion zone. Despite having several natural formations between the ship and the team, as the first Salarian team crossed the ground exclusion zone, the broadside weapons opened fire on the team, burning through multiple rock and ice formations to exterminate the team. The second withdrew back to their transport at that point, and respected the exclusion zone while evacuating and was allowed to withdraw. Whatever the eldar are using for sensors doesn't use the same principles as our own, so I am forced to admit that any close observations must wait until we have Eldar that aren't in a defensive stance. I am also concerned that we are well inside of the Eldar ship's weapon range, despite what the small exclusion zone implies.

The next week, had the 175th turian patrol squadron pass through the system on their way to the Hades' Gamma cluster, though they did linger in system to run their own scans of the Eldar ship. However, no Turian ship closed to within five hundred kilometers, let alone the fifty kilometer exclusion zone, so they left without incident.

During the last week of the month, the Salarian Union frigate Silent Whisper entered the system, and requested the status of the ships that had been lost due to exclusion zone violations. Despite warnings to the contrary, the ship attempted to breach the exclusion zone to recover their dead after broadcasting their intentions, and were promptly engaged by the Eldar ship.

This time the Eldar ship attempted to divert the vessel with a pair of slow moving warning shots, but the Salarian activated its GUARDIAN lasers to attempt to shoot down the shots, perhaps believing them missiles or torpedoes, only for their lasers to either pass through or miss. The Eldar ship retaliated with what I believe to be every working weapon on board, promptly blowing the frigate to pieces, and then vaporizing the pieces as they fell. No lifeboats were launched, leaving me to conclude that the ship was lost with all hands.

The next day, another Salarian ship approached the exclusion zone, but was engaged and destroyed at a distance of twice the usual exclusion zone. Of the second ship, any pieces that drifted toward the planet were destroyed, but we were able to recover four lifeboats with seventeen of the twenty three crew on board, according to the survivors. All survivors were transported back to Eden Prime to await pickup by the next Salarian Union vessel.

As a result of the Salarian ship's actions, I have ordered my squadron to keep a minimum distance of two hundred kilometers from the vessel as a gesture of good faith. However, the probes that we dropped near the exclusion zone but have not crossed into the it have been ignored by the vessel, as such we have been able to record the repairs of the vessel, despite no crew appearing outside of the vessel, nor spotting any exposed passages. Long range penetrating scans of the Eldar vessel have revealed only a handful of rooms and passages, most connected to what we suspect was originally a hangar. We think the vessel originally only had a bridge, a hangar, and a single passage connecting the two, along with a pair of side rooms possibly used for storage or repairs, though how they service their weapons, engines, other facilities, and armor is beyond us. However, damage to the vessel's hull that we can observe have been slowly but steadily closing, though the main gun still hasn't begun to be repaired. Most interesting, however, is that the vessel is rebuilding the topside solar sail, though where they are getting that much material from is something my squadron's engineers having been becoming increasingly less civil about to each other.

Respectfully;

Captain Jakob Naseem, Cruiser Houston of the Second Fleet

* * *

Subject: INFO - Eldar Home Galaxy Races, Initial Report

TO: Admiral Hackett, Fifth Fleet Commanding Officer;

Summary \- The eldar have been in a state of war with at least seven major races and twelve major organizations for the last ten thousand years, in addition to innumerable lesser races which hold only a system or two, a war which began with the loss of their core colonies, homeworld, and at least 99% of their population base, and are still considered a major faction and power.

While all this information comes from a single source, the only known active eldar, Pathfinder Arlas, I believe the information is compelling, or at very least consistent, enough to warrant further review, which I will conduct as I am able. First, I want to say that Arlas has shown myself his memories of several events, most notably his engagement with the ork kommando unit known as the Blood Tusks which included the majority of the Normandy's crew or Specialist team, to validate the information contained within this report.

This report will deal with the seven major races, and a follow on report will deal with the factions. I leave it to the scientists to decide why the Eldar come from a galaxy with so much sentient life, while our own seems to so barren in comparison.

The first race I will cover is the Eldar themselves, though only briefly, as a follow on report will deal with the differences between Eldar and humans, as well as their technology and 'psyker' ability, distinct from biotics. Their history starts with a war between a race called the Old Ones and their opponents, the C'tan and their Necrontyr slaves. Desperate for allies, the Old Ones began uplifting every race they could find, including the eldar, and eventually resorted to bioengineering races to assist in their defense against the C'tan. They ultimately failed. The C'tan and Necrontyr, however, were exhausted by the war, and went into a deep hibernation, and with the Old Ones either fled or exterminated, this allowed the Eldar to rise to prominence. They then ruled the galaxy for sixty million years. At what point and why they lost such prominence, however, Arlas refuses to give details, only that it was possibly self inflicted, cost the Eldar nearly their entire race, and the surviving Eldar fragmented because it, causing three different major factions of Eldar to form. These factions will be expanded on in the Faction Report, but were called the Dark Eldar, the Harlequins, and the Craftworld Eldar, the latter of which he is a part. Two minor factions were also mentioned, Corsairs and Exodites, but I will need more time to gather information on those ones.

The second race is the orks. Arlas showed that the typical specimen starts at two and a half meters, and only continues to grow as they live, the largest known ork by his craftworld was nearly five meters tall, and took a low orbit cruiser bombardment to actually kill the ork. Orks have no gender but default to male due to similarities to other races' males, being a type of fungus, and use photosynthesis to provide most of their energy with scavenged meat being used to make up any shortcomings. This includes a recently killed enemy, a lesser ork called a gretchin which only stands at about human height but is still able to overpower a human, or a squig, a symbiotic monster that the orks use for rations, pack beasts, pets, and even assaulting heavy fortifications. And most importantly, being a type of fungus, they reproduce with spores. To quote Pathfinder Arlas, 'Once a single ork vessel has crashed on a planet, that planet is theirs, the only question is how long it takes. They might spend tens of trillions of orks over tens of thousands of years in thousands of failed attempts, but eventually, like water against a mountain, the water eventually wins. It cares not for drops lost in the endeavor, only that the mountain is down. And once the water has the mountain, it goes looking for another mountain to tear down, hoping it is even bigger, forever seeking another mountain. The only way to stop the orks from eventually winning is to burn the very rocks from the planet, otherwise, they will simply keep coming back.'

The third race is the tyranids. From what Arlas has reported, it was their version of the rachni, except the Tyranids would bioengineer new combat forms to suit specific battlefield needs in their staging areas as required. The similarities, however, are striking. Led by a single mind, it didn't matter how many were slaughtered, the rest would keep pushing forward, unless the leading mind decided to regroup the survivors with the next wave. And even worse, they used any biomass they could acquire to spawn more units, so each world that they took was stripped of everything, plants, animals, water, even air, to fuel their massive fleets. Arlas claimed his Craftworld was specialized to hunting down tyranid 'splinter fleets,' which apparently were survivors of a previous invasion that was broken with the death of the Swarm Queen, though he claims the Craftworld was almost as good against the orks.

The fourth race was Tau, a group of blue humanoid mammals similar to humans, but with more affinity for group actions and ranged combat, and supported by a lesser race called the Kroot for tracking and melee combat. The Tau are also led by a lesser race called the Ethereals, but Arlas didn't say much about the Tau race or its allied races, other than they were hopelessly naive and arrogant. Along with a number of words in what is assumed to be the Eldar language, but he did not translate them, so I assume them to be explicatives or insults.

The fifth race was humans, and he said they were identical to us, in temperament, aptitudes, intellect, and appearance. I am not sure he meant that as a compliment. He did say that humans had replaced the Eldar as the dominant race, and were aligned under a theocratic dictatorship, devoted to 'the God-Emperor of mankind.'

The sixth race was the one he was least interested in talking about, called Chaos. I was unable to determine if it was a race, faction, allegiance, or something else, but considering it involves what he calls daemons, that have three arms, six eyes, two legs, a mouth full of misshapen and pointy teeth, and flings 'warp fire' that burns you to ash if it grazes you, I believe including it in the race section to be prudent.

The seventh and last race is the Necrontyr, and while he was unwilling to discuss much about them, it was because he doesn't know much more than the basic stories about them, in addition to his memories of two encounters with them. They used to be a race of hunchback humanoids, that made a deal with the C'tan for immortal bodies, but failed to realize the C'tan would 'consume their souls.' Now they are a race of machines that hunt down and destroy the living, trapped in metal bodies that are impossible to actually destroy without casting them into the 'immaterium,' using a fusion gun to vaporize them, or using a few more esoteric weapons some of the other factions use. Even if the bodies are melted, they will either slowly reform from the goo, hardening back into soldiers and weapons, or teleport back to their bases to reform there.

Those seven are the major races, and he had no information on any of the races we have encountered so far in our galaxy. No Salarians, turians, asari, quarians, krogan, or any of the others. All of his extranet access has been information gathering on the races, homeworlds, populations, military strengths, political stances, reproduction, even the differences between levi and dextro-protein species. Despite his searches, he still maintains his attitude of superiority, and still stays apart from most of the crew, though he has found a kindred spirit in, of all people, our krogan, and has slowly been warming to the rest of the crew. He has also stated that his Craftworld is coming, though he refuses to give more details, and we have discovered that they sent at least one other group ahead, though again he refuses to give details. I will continue to log what I can, and submit follow up reports.

Respectfully,

Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, N7 Adept

* * *

 _Subject: Council meeting log, video communication, 2183-64b.3, subject: Eldar Pathfinder Arlas, new race_

 **Tevos, Asari Councilor** : So, now we move onto our newest 'race.' After having time to review the logs, both provided by the humans and from our own agents, the Council of Matriarchs and the Asari Empress both agree that this being is not human.

 **Valern, Salarian Councilor** : Agreed. Genetic samples far too complex to have originally been human.

 **Sparatus, Turian Councilor** : And how exactly did you get a genetic sample? He has been in sealed armor whenever he has been on the Citadel.

 **Valern** : …

 **Sparatus** : Right, apologies, forgot who I was referring to.

 **Tevos** : What about your investigations into his weapons? Are the human reports of him using laser and plasma based weapons correct?

 **Valern** : Laser weapon confirmed, plasma weapon strongly suggested, can't confirm without either testing weapon ourselves, or seeing it with enough sensors.

 **Sparatus:** And how did you do that?

 **Valern:** Two agents killed before meeting with Tevos. One by his primary weapon, another by melee weapon.

 **Sparatus:** ...Tevos met with him?

 **Tevos:** Yes, same day we had Nassana Dantius arrested for corruption and failure to disclose security risks, thanks to Spectre Icivia Kryik and the Shepard Twins. Your secretary was notified, as you were in a meeting with the Hierarchy Primarchs and Tribunes. Valern, what did the STG agent dispatched to Eden Prime learn from there?

 **Sparatus:** Apologies, I have to check something.

 **Valern:** What STG agent?

 **Tevos:** Valern, we all know that every salarian 'trader' is just a STG agent with a hold full of trade goods instead of spy gear.

 **Valern:** ...Damage to starport retaining wall extremely unusual. Definitely delivered by high heat weapon, possibly plasma, but again, without tests on actual weapon or a high definition, mutli-spectrum recording, we can't say for sure.

 **Sparatus:** ...How about a recording of the weapon discharging?

 **Valern:** … … … What?

 **Sparatus:** Spectre Icivia Kryik sent me a copy of a file of the Twins on their mission. Apparently the humans had a VI go rogue in one of their training bases.

 **Valern:** Know already, two agents were called in by System Alliance to confirm coding not problem, wasn't, currently suspecting sabotage. Discharge recording?

 **Sparatus:** Well, apparently the savage went ahead of the group to scout, and bungled it. Got ambushed and injured. Sending the file now.

 _No activity for three minutes._

 **Tevos:** Goddess, that was brutal.

 **Valern:** Extremely informative, can extrapolate much from this. Sending file to STG for analysis now. Interesting that arm didn't bleed, but the mech's blade wound and the bullet wounds did. Would suggest prosthesis, but too finely tuned, would have to be directly linked to nerves for that type of control. And that teleporter, absolutely fascinating.

 **Tevos:** He was ambushed by a tank, three heavy mechs, a mob of drones and Loki mechs, and those two… monster machines, and he still took out most of them before being injured. And he even managed to get away, judging from the last teleport we saw. Was that the entire recording Sparatus?

 _No activity for one minute._

 **Tevos:** Sparatus, are you still there?

 **Sparatus:** What kind of monster…

 **Tevos:** SPARATUS!

 **Sparatus:** Yes, what! Sorry, I was… distracted.

 **Tevos:** Was that the entire recording?

 **Sparatus:** I need to… yes, that was the entire recording. You invited that… thing to the galactic swordsmanship tournament, correct?

 **Tevos:** Eldar. He is an Eldar, Sparatus, not a thing or a monster, and yes I did. Why?

 **Sparatus:** Right, I need to go, plans to make. The Primarchs and Imperator…

 _Turian Councilor Sparatus has left the vid call._

Valern: Well, that was not concerning at all.

Tevos: I hope he doesn't do something rash. Valern, will you inform me if he is planning something… unpleasant? If this is what one Eldar operative is capable of, I have no desire of finding out what several can do. I doubt that his people would take his loss, especially at our hands, lightly.

Valern: … Of course.

 _Salarian Councilor Valern has left the vid call._

Tevos: Why do I suddenly feel like the only voice of sanity on this Council yet again? Computer, call the Empress, she needs to know what her daughter will be facing at the tournament. Assuming he joins, of course. End current call.

 _Asari Councilor Tevos has left the vid call._

 _The video suddenly plays again, showing the eldar dodging a pair of anti-personnel missiles and a tank shot with a teleport, before rapidly engaging the mechs with his fusion gun and pistol, firing wildly as he tried to keep the mechs from converging on him and teleporting whenever he failed. The defiance lasted all of ninety three seconds, before one of the Maelstrom mechs stabbed him from behind as he landed from a teleport, and a second Maelstrom mech took off his arm. The eldar then teleported again, taking most of the two mechs with him._

 **eRr0R: Fascinating. The commanders are keeping such intriguing company.**

 _eRr0R (unknown user) has left the vid call._

 __: If only you knew._

 _Vid call has ended. Archiving full log in Citadel permanent storage archive. Deleting last one hundred twelve seconds of video call. Storing modified vid call log in public Citadel storage archive._

* * *

 _Warhammer 40k universe, unknown world in Eye of Terror_

Farseer Cael'Iadra glanced over her warlock guard squad, ensuring no one had wandered off, before nodding to the striking scorpion exarch behind her. The exarch gathered her squad, and stalked off toward the next eldar building, to ensure it was clear before the Farseer and her squad arrived, while a Dire Avenger squad stayed nearby, ensuring the Farseer wasn't ambushed while the scorpions scouted ahead. Off to her left, she could hear Dark Reapers shredding chaos infantry squads, and howling banshees engaging chaos space marines, before something exploded nearby. She winced as a falcon hovertank slammed into the ground nearby, but nodded in relief as the gunner was able to climb out of the tank and retrieve the pilot's spirit stone before joining her group. Over to her right, a proud, massive Phantom titan strode forward, firing both of its titan Pulsars at an unseen target. At its side, a second Phantom fired at a different target, covering its sister titan's advance.

The Farseer moved forward at the sound of combat in the next building, but it ended before she got close, and a striking scorpion stepped out, gesturing for the group to come in. Inside, a striking scorpion dead lay on the ground, and two more were being treated for injuries, but the nearly thirty cultists who had set up a small shrine in the building were dead to the last. She sighed, ignoring the shrine to check the various rooms, but the lore they had hoped to find in these buildings so far were lost, ruined and destroyed by both time and invaders.

The Farseer sighed, and in the privacy of the last room, stretched, arching her back like a cat as she enjoyed the sensation of isolation for just a second, before returning to the main room. This time the Dire Avengers were sent ahead to the next building, while two Warlocks who followed Isha, goddess of healing, tended the striking scorpion wounded and another collected the spirit stone. The powerful striking scorpion exarch, wielding a power sword and a power claw with a built in shuriken cannon, was at a window, looking out, watching a pair of revenant scout titans duel with a chaos titan. The Farseer moved to stand beside the exarch, and while the revenant titans successfully brought down their opponent, one of them was destroyed by the chaos titan's escorts. They watch the second revenant go into a fury, slaughtering the killers of its kin, but soon it too falls, landing on top its sister. The exarch finally communicates as they watch several tanks push to the titans, to try and recover them, or at least the spirit stones in them. (*We linger too long, and gain nothing. We are losing.*)

Farseer Cael'Iadra doesn't move, but simply sends her exhausted agreement. (*Agreed, but we are almost to where we need to be. It will be either the next building, or one soon after. We need what they hold. The runes were clear about that.*)

The exarch doesn't speak, but simply gathers her remaining able warriors with a gesture, before moving ahead. After a moment, a Falcon hovertank arrives, the two wounded scorpions and the downed falcon tank gunner quickly being loaded and evacuated before the warlocks gather around the Farseer, and move to the next building.

Three buildings later, and the Farseer finally called a halt. Seven chaos berserkers and twelve chaos Bloodletters had fallen to the group, but so had a majority of her escort, including the striking scorpion and dire avenger exarches. She had four warlocks, a striking scorpion, and six dire avengers left out of her initial force of forty. She gazed about the large structure she had spotted and diverted the force to, her foresense screaming it was where she needed to go, but as she personally checked room after room, her despair grew. Each room was a ruin, destroyed and desecrated by the forces of time and chaos.

It wasn't until she checked the last room that her despair wavered slightly, as the door had not been hidden, but the interior was pristine, unsullied by blood and viscera like the others. She sent a mental warning to her escort of her location, and entered the room. After she crossed the room, the door suddenly shut, and she whirled about, her hand on her Singing Spear, but no daemons leapt out of the air to tear her armor from her and defile her, no cultists sprung from hiding places in the wall to mutilate her. Instead, a small door in the wall opened after a moment, revealing a staircase down.

After a second of consideration, she took the stairs down. She got only a few steps down when the door behind her suddenly sealed, plunging her into near perfect darkness. She glanced backwards, but only for a second, before continuing forward. It was only a short stairway, but in the darkness on a chaos infested world, it felt like an eternity, even for a Farseer with more than four millennia of experience to draw upon. Only time would tell if it was courage or bravado that compelled her down those stairs, a desire to ensure the deaths of so many Eldar, on the cusp of their Craftworld leaving through the Elisphan webway gate, were worthy causes or just more wasted lives.

Upon arriving at the bottom, Farseer Cael'Iadra was rewarded for her courage with a small trove of undamaged tomes. She glanced over their titles, and allowed herself a smile, before reaching out to her warlocks. *I found what we were looking for. Call in the transports and an escort.*

She traced the spine of the most important tome on the shelf, reading the title to herself one more time. 'A Treatise on Greater Webway Gates and Their Construction.'

 _A/N - Because screw canonicity in the Warhammer 40k verse! This is a crossover, which means I can play with anything I want! BUWAHAHAHAHAHA!_

 _Ahem, more seriously, that is the first intermission chapter, giving you a view of what is going on in other areas of the galaxy, and what other important personages are planning. As well as introducing a handful of new characters. Kinda. Also, I know some of the species facts Shepard was reporting were wrong, that was due to it being third or even fourth hand information, or her just misunderstanding him. Or him just outright lying._

 _Also, FYI this is important so pay attention , I will be busy with holiday stuff for the next week or so, so I may not update for a week or two. Send nasty-grams if you want, I will simply laugh at you and delete them._


	17. Eldar Negotiations

**Chapter 16 - Eldar Negotiations**

 _A/N - Still sorry for that last chapter's ending. Sorry. Not the intermission, the one before that. Oh, and also the break. Though not enough to promise not to do it again._

 _Also, introducing my own canon for certain things, so if it clashes with the baseline canon of Warhammer 40k, let me know. I am trying to avoid canon clashes, but the two sites I use are… a bit dated, my source books even more so (3rd edition, assuming I can find them again). So be helpful, but also polite. It costs nothing, and makes people more likely to listen rather than brush you off._

 _Also, at some point during the break, this story crossed into the top 25 list for Mass Effect and Warhammer 40k crossovers for followers. While it was and still is an eventual goal to get this story as highly rated as such masterpieces as 'Silly but Killy,' 'Honor-bound,' and perhaps most delusionally, 'The Mission Stays the Same,' I certainly did not expect to hit this milestone so quickly. So thank you all for indulging me in my hobby, and hope I can continue to provide this level of entertainment, at a minimum until the end of Arlas' story._

 _Oh, right, if you haven't read those three stories I mentioned yet, go do so. All are good, though for different reasons._

" _We are in His favor!" - Sisters of Battle player after abusing their invincibility rules to hell and back._

Arlas was no stranger to pain, not after being caught by the Dark eldar and kept in one of their holding pens for a few hours after being shot in the hand by one of their weapons. The bullet had had some esoteric poison smeared on it that had caused his limb to start rotting off, while making the nerves extremely sensitive, so him cutting off the limb at his forearm with his chain blade had caused him to pass out. The only reason he got off as lightly as he had was because one succubus had taken a shine to him, and wanted him for herself, her own personal breeding toy. Though she had promised to cut off his feet should he even think about trying to escape.

But still, waking up after taking two sharpened, edged metal spikes to the lower gut, one from the front and the other the back, at least six bullets, and losing the majority of his left arm easily made the top five list of most painful awakenings yet. At least this time he wasn't in a small metal cage, barely big enough for him when he hunched over as far as he could. Instead he was unrestrained, and lying on a flat, modestly uncomfortable surface, though he could feel air moving across his skin, indicating that someone had removed at least part of his bodysuit. Done taking stock of his physical state, he began taking stock of his surroundings, without moving or opening his eyes.

Arlas could feel air moving through the room, but no echoes which meant he was in a small room. He could also feel small circular objects placed on his chest, but had no idea what they were for. He could hear someone breathing and tapping on something, and a short while later the creaking of a chair before he heard a human female speak, "Commander Joannis? I believe Arlas is waking up."

He realized he had been caught, and opened his eyes to discover someone had placed a bright light directly above him. He winced, before reaching up to shove the light away, only to have someone grab his arm. "Pathfinder Arlas, refrain from sudden movements please. You were badly injured, and while we have removed the bullets and blades and fixed the holes, you haven't fully recovered."

He glared at the human holding his arm, before carefully pulling his arm free to push the light aside. Now that he wasn't being dazzled by the light, he took a longer look at himself as he sat up. A quick glance down showed some kind of small pads on his chest, the small circular objects he had felt. With a shrug, he pulled them off before examining the room he was in in greater detail, ignoring the exasperated sigh and comment from the human. "Why do I even bother?"

He was in a small bay with a desk, several books, a small display, and three tables with equipment hanging over them, and recognized it as being the human 'medical' near the mess hall. He turned to the healer in charge, actually seeing her for the first time. A human woman in her prime if he had to guess from physical clues, though the gray hair indicated age but her body didn't support that idea, average height and build, and sharp, bright blue eyes. "Apologies, healer, we have not met."

That got a noise of disapproval. "Believe me, I have noticed. I have been trying to get you in here for a baseline physical for weeks. If it takes you get injured to come in for basic medical tests, I will start carrying a pistol. Doctor Karin Chakwas, chief medical officer."

Arlas couldn't help but chuckle softly, she had the same attitude as the Craftworld healers. "Apologies, healer. The humans I am familiar with have rather… barbaric medical practices, and I have enough prosthetics already."

Doctor Chakwas made another noise of disapproval. "Clearly less practical, and if you had come in, you wouldn't have terrified some of the ground team about losing that arm."

Arlas didn't bother dignifying that with a response. "How long was I out?"

"Bit longer than a day. We are on our way to the Hades Gamma Cluster, currently in the Exodus. The commanders wanted to wait until you woke up, in case you needed to talk to your comrades on your grounded cruiser. The commanders are on their way now. Perhaps you would like something to wear?"

He didn't respond, simply glancing down, and noticing that they had stripped his body suit off of him, apparently to treat his wounds. He remembered coming back to consciousness twice after passing out after being found by Gemling and Dusk, once to try and grab his fusion gun though the pain of the movement had quickly overwhelmed him again, and once to try and remove his armor when he had felt the metal spikes in his chest being removed, but couldn't remember the removal of his suit. He had psychically managed to release the clamps on the armor, but that was it. Taking in his nude state, he glanced at the doctor. "Where is my body suit?"

While waiting for a reply, he queried Yol'Pvera about her status, and got cold silence from her, indicating she was not happy with him.

"We had to cut it off, as we couldn't figure out how to remove it. And the holes from the wounds meant it needed replacement anyways."

He glared at the small soft, clear container the doctor offered him, containing what was clearly pieces of the old suit. "It was removed by pulling at the neck opening and then pulling down. It is meant to provide an airtight barrier to prevent exposures and air loss. And I could repair holes."

The human doctor gave him a smirk. "And if you had come in for that physical I had been trying to get, you could have told me. You are lucky you woke up enough to release the armor, I was contemplating taking it apart to get to your wounds."

Arlas froze, the temperature of the room dropping a few degrees as he glared at the doctor, who seemed to realize that such a declaration was not being taken well. She gave him a shrug, before turning to the storage cabinets in the room. "Again, if you had come down before, I wouldn't need to guess what is and is not acceptable. Now, I got some readings from you while you were unconscious, but I still need that baseline. When would you like to do that? And we can also discuss how your equipment should be treated the next time you come in for treatment."

Arlas was saved from answering by Lioness and Dusk entering the room, both immediately forgetting their conversation as they saw Arlas. Joannis just gave him an up and down, but the asari turned a darker purple, trying to tear her gaze from the eldar's stomach and failing. Arlas just smirked, before leaning back against the table edge, and coughed, to no effect on the asari. The doctor searched through her cabinets, grumbling under her breath about people taking things and not bothering to return them.

Joannis spoke first. "I thought you were male."

Arlas gave her a flat stare for her non-sequitur. "I am."

"Huh, internal. Color me surprised."

She then glanced at the doctor. "Bad time, doctor?"

The commander simply replied to the doctor's death glare with a grin before the doctor replied. "He is too tall, none of the medical gowns will fit. I have been trying to find a towel, but again…"

Doctor Chakwas finished searching through her current cabinet, and glanced at the two women in the entrance as she moved to the next, before frowning. "Liara."

Joannis looked over at her companion, a smile swiftly crushed as she observed the monumental struggle on the young asari's face. Taking pity on her, the commander tapped her shoulder, making Liara squeak and jump, which only made Arlas smirk wider. He ignored the glare the human commander gave him, not bothering to move. With a sigh, Joannis turned back to Liara. "How about you wait outside? As I am sure you can tell, he is fine."

Liara whimpered before fleeing the room, not responding to the suggestion even as she took it. After the asari left, the commander turned to the eldar. "I was worried you were injured. I didn't expect to learn you were an exhibitionist."

He frowned at her, not understanding the term. After a moment, she seemed to realize the problem. "Humans have a nudity taboo."

He nodded in dawning comprehension. "To the eldar, flesh is flesh. Most do not show it, but we are not embarrassed by our perfection."

He glanced over his left shoulder as a few strands of hair came into view, and reached back to pull it around, only to remember he was missing that arm . He glared at the stump, and growled after gently pulsing his power to check his arm, before tossing his hair back over his shoulder with a flick of his head and sighing. "Is there something you need, commander, or can I go back to my ship?"

She gave him an unamused look, before straightening and becoming serious. "You armor and weapons were placed in your transport's bay, and we need to talk about the mission. However, we can do that AFTER you get dressed. Doctor, have you found a towel yet?"

Doctor Chakwas came over, holding a very large piece of fabric. "It's for covering shock victims, I need it back later. Also, commander, if your sister raids my medical stocks one more time instead of seeing me first for her injuries, I will have to start sealing the medical bay supplies."

Arlas gave the fabric a grimace of distaste before taking it. A couple deft movements allowed him to wrap the coarse fabric around his waist, before securing it with a hand and giving the human women a look. "Better?"

Doctor Chakwas had taken a seat at her terminal, and Joannis spoke. "Alright, a quick question, then you can go and do your thing. First, are you going to have a problem with my twin again? I realize she was waspish toward you back on Luna."

He gave her a flat, extremely unpleasant glare, displeased about being reminded of that situation before he had the limbs and weapons needed to ensure it didn't happen again. "Yes, though a fight in a training ring with her will easily sort that out. I will even promise to do nothing significantly permanent to her."

She sighed, before shaking her head. "I can't let that happen, the attached N7 of a ship fighting with crew will do unpleasant things to morale."

He stepped forward, and hissed at the tiny human in front of him. "For the repeated disrespect she has given me, my kin would demand hers, yours, and your families' lives in compensation. Give me reasons to not, and I will forgive the threat she tried to make."

Arlas was shocked when the twin immediately replied. "Because you scare her, and she responds to fear by lashing out. You scare me too, but I refuse to let my fear dictate my actions. Because you don't respect the chain of command, and she appreciates the order it brings to her life. And because she, and for that matter the rest of us, know nearly _nothing_ about you. We don't know where to put you in a fight, how good your armor is, when you will run, when you will fight, when you will bargain, and yet you say use you. So how are we supposed to do that, when you don't let us? Are those enough reasons, or should I keep going?"

He stared down at her, before conceding that she had met his hasty terms, though he would make sure to word things better in the future. "Very well, after the mission to get the… missing armor piece back, I will sit down and have that conversation with you."

The eldar idly admitted that this human was almost at Farseer levels of manipulating others, and immediately had to banish a thought of her in the form fitting wraithbone armor of a Farseer. Luckily, the doctor spoke up, distracting him from the disturbing mental image. "Commander Joannis, if you do not immediately respect patient confidentiality rules, I will immediately head down to the communication room, and inform your mother."

The human woman gave Karin a horrified look, before sighing and tapping her omnitool several times as Arlas watched on in utter bafflement, confused at the sudden turn of events. "Fine."

Karin spoke again in a voice cold enough to stop the Crone herself as the commander turned to leave. "Joannis Marie Shepard, if all backup copies are not deleted, or you sent a copy to someone else already, I will be forced to take more extreme measures."

Arlas was consumed with curiosity as the commander tapped a few more keys before she quickly fled the room, but he simply shrugged and turned to the doctor. "Was there anything else?"

"Yes, your baseline. When would you like to do that?"

He sighed, before sitting back down. "What **exactly** will this entail?"

He gave the doctor an evil stare as she pulled on a pair of sterile gloves, suddenly wishing he had enough control over his psyker abilities to convince her he had done this already.

* * *

A few hours later, Arlas made it to his ship, and sealed the bay behind him, before tossing the fabric into one of the seats. Glad to be free of the uncomfortable fabric, he grabbed his chest armor, and carried it into the armory. * _Yol'Pvera, how did they move my equipment? I know the biolocks are still working._ *

He could feel her scorn even without her linking her emotions. * _They used a high sophisticated and complex piece of equipment known as tongs. You also put most of the biolocks on standby before you passed out._ *

Arlas paused, before sighing and placing the armor on the work table, and then rubbing his forehead. * _Of course they did. Most sophisticated equipment defense system in the galaxy, defeated by a metal stick._ *

He headed back to the bay, and grabbed his old prosthetic arm, before shaking his head. * _Damn, right through the wraithbone seed. Arm is intact though. Yol'Pvera, how many seeds do we have?_ *

* _Thirty nine small patch seeds, four medium patch seeds for myself and the Vyper, five weapon seeds, and three armor seeds._ *

He nodded, before carrying the arm back into the armory, and setting it down on the table. He then reached up, and ran a finger along the inside of his arm, causing his arm to open up like a flower bulb halfway down, releasing the prosthesis from his arm attachment. A quick check of the attachment point, just a wraithbone seal, showed it was undamaged by the fighting. He grabbed one of the small patch seeds from the storage above the table, and began repairing the arm.

Arlas first placed the seed against the severed arm piece, and began channeling his psyker ability into it, causing the seed to slowly merge with the arm over the course of a few minutes. Now that he had the arm active again, he connected the part that connected to his shoulder, and channeled his power again to finish rebuilding the arm. Once that finally finished, his stomach protested the lack of sustenance, and he reattached the prosthesis to the attachment point on his arm. Arlas observed the prosthetic arm as it slowly changed color to match his skin, before he stood and headed into his personal cabin.

A moment to get dressed in a body glove identical to the one they had cut off him, and then he pulled on his warp spider tabard, before reaching out for the _Raibh Karun's_ spiritseer. He gave a report on everything that had happened, as well as why he had taken so long to contact her, before suggesting that she start at least responding to the signals the humans were sending to them. He smiled as she reported that the locals had breached his requested exclusion zone several times, so she had doubled the range, and killed a total of four salarian ships and a single infantry squad as well as added the kill markers to the side of the ship.

Finished with getting updates from his ship and making suggestions, he stretched before heading up to get some food. He managed to grab a small plate of his usual food, the ship cook managing to store a plate of cold leaves, nuts, and a small vial of honey for him, and added a couple pieces of bread and a slice of the thresher maw meat they were still working through. Wrex had carved off nearly a ton of meat, and the cook was carefully husbanding the remaining amount, at least until the next time someone killed one. But since he was recovering from injuries he needed more food, and asked for a second amount, which didn't seem to surprise the servicewoman in the least as she brought out the food immediately.

He gratefully returned to the ship with his bounty, setting it down on the armory table, and informing Yol'Pvera he was going to be fixing his equipment and checking the human's treatment of his wounds. It still hurt when he tried to breath, which meant one of his four diaphragms had been damaged, rather than just the lung itself. But the first thing he did was start eating, dealing with the hunger pains that had been distracting him, then he would see about repairing his equipment.

* * *

A few days later, he was in the briefing room with the rest of the specialist crew, the ship having arrived in the Hades Gamma Cluster. The ship was currently drifting toward the planet of interest. Joannis spoke first. "Alright crew, here is the situation.

"We have a personal mission here but Systems Alliance Intelligence is piecing together the latest information on Saren thanks to Tonn Actus. They expect to have something inside a few weeks at the latest. Just in time for Arlas to finish fighting at the Galactic Blade Tournament."

Jaclyn gave Arlas a tight nod, before she took over the briefing. "The next mission is one for our resident elf. After dealing with Tonn Actus, we learned that he bought the suit of apparently eldar armor from the local warlord Kevin Darius. He is a rogue bandit lord, and the Systems Alliance has requested that we deal with him appropriately. One of the System Alliance Intelligence frigates will be loitering in deep space nearby until we hit the base, and if Darius survives Arlas' questioning, they would like a chance to… 'talk' with him. If not… 'they will understand,' end quote."

Joannis took up the thread of the briefing. "Arlas' mission will happen the day after the tomorrow. We will have two days to make contact, the target thinks we are a team of Alliance negotiators, which is how we will get in. Hostiles on that mission will be turians, batarians, humans, and krogan, we are looking at at least a full platoon of fifty, maybe more as he does have a pair of old, decommissioned Berlin class cruisers and an escort of three turian and four batarian frigates, making him a powerhouse in the local cluster. Only two frigates and a cruiser are in system, and we will be hunting the others down later as we have time.

"We will be split into two teams for that mission, Entry Team will be Jaclyn, myself, Kaidan, Ashley, and Arlas under cloak, to maintain the guise of a negotiation team from the System Alliance, while Icivia leads the rest of the specialist team, designated Breach Team, into the compound from the second shuttle when the shooting starts. Second team will remain in their shuttle as 'additional troops if necessary,' which shouldn't spook the target."

Joannis looked over at Arlas. "However, since you are the lynchpin of the second mission, we need to know, how are you doing? The medical report Dr. Chakwas gave me listed a number of injuries, though clearly your arm is fine now, not to mention your equipment took as much a beating as you did."

Arlas gave a languid wave of his restored left arm, the damage completely repaired. "Armor is back to full functionality, as are my long rifle, pistol, and fusion gun. My flamer pistol still has some issues, and I will not be bringing it on a mission until I am certain it will not explode in my hand. I am mostly whole again, and am ready for combat as I will get."

Jaclyn gave him a look. "You had a pierced lung and diaphragm, six holes in your gut, and a concussion, as near as we can tell. Four days later, and you claim you are fine? I highly doubt that."

Arlas privately congratulated her for remembering the lessons he had managed to teach her through her twin about being polite, even as he replied. "Eldar heal quickly, your healer removed the projectiles before I had to cut them out, and I used some of my own people's healing techniques to quicken the recovery. One of my diaphragms aches when I breath, but that should pass after today's healing session, so all I have are some interesting scars to show for the fight."

Liara looked up, suddenly overcoming her extreme embarrassment of being near him. "Wait, one of your diaphragms? How many do you have?"

He turned at the question, the movement suddenly causing her embarrassment to flare up again, even before he spoke. "Four. I fail to see how eldar biology is relevant to the briefing. Unless you have a more personal interest for some reason?"

That got her to turn a rather fascinating shade of deep purple, though he quickly turned back to the Twins. "Anything else or shall I return to medical to finish my meditations? Healer Chakwas requested to observe the process."

After a shared look between the Twins, they nodded. "Kaidan, Ashley remain for further orders about the mission, everyone else dismissed."

Arlas saw Gemling leave quickly with Dusk, the latter refused to even look in his direction while the former quietly talked with the asari. He left with Wrex, before they split to head to different destinations, Arlas to the med-bay and Wrex to the hangar. He arrived quickly to find the back room locked, no doubt where Gemling and Dusk were, but he dismissed them from his thoughts as he pulled out the rune tile for healing from a belt pouch, ten by three centimeters and a simple rune engraved on it to act as a focus for his meditations. He had to remove his tabard and then pull his body suit down to his waist so doctor Chakwas' scanner would work, before he began channeling his energies into the rune, and from there into him to heal the damage.

* * *

Arlas was indulging the mon-keigh later that day, after a particularly successful day of psycraft meditations and exercises, pleased that he was finally starting to make some progress with his psy-abilities. He was learning to more rapidly channel the immaterium, even if he could only form small orbs and hold them together a short distance from him; it meant he was actually going to be able to do more than open a fight with his abilities, eventually. He had decided to reward his progress with some fruit along with his usual meal.

Since they were doing him a considerable favor with the upcoming mission, he decided that he could at least spend some time with the crew of the ship ferrying him around, rather than tolerating and mostly ignoring them. Which was why he was currently staring at one of the female servicewomen, who had just asked a question. "I believe I misheard you; repeat the question?"

Several of the crew were gathered about the mess hall, where they had found him eating, and had asked for permission to ask him some questions that he had made the mistake of agreeing too. The servicewoman grinned. "I asked if all eldar are as graceful as you are. Your grace is… otherworldly, fascinating and yet very inhuman, and if we are going to get a significant number of your people moving about, I would like to know to warn some friends."

He frowned, considering the question, before nodding. "I am considered possessing average grace by the standards of Craftworld eldar."

He noticed the ground team entering the mess hall behind the group of five humans and a quarian, but didn't move to greet them. He saw them, they saw him, that was greeting enough for the eldar, but apparently not for the humans. The Twins nodded, and Ashley 'Anvil' Williams gave him a small smile and nod, showing that she was slowly appreciating the wisdom he was feeding her. Her and Wrex were the two he spent the most time with, so he had taught them a few more things about eldar communication than the others, mostly hammering the fact that everything they did had extra connotations to it, so they needed to speak with the minimal amount of gestures. Kaidan however, just saw him and kept walking, heading for the medical room, and holding his shoulder, having been injured during the routine scouting mission the team had done today to get some information on the base before the meeting. The Twins had apparently managed to roll the tank several times, and Kaidan's restraints had torn free, flinging him into a wall shoulder first.

Arlas turned back to the five crew around him, and answered the next question. "There are three major kinds of eldar and two minor, the majors are Craftworld eldar like myself, Dark eldar who are consumed by their desires and urges and more vicious for it, and the Harlequins, who are our historians and storytellers, travelling wherever they need to observe history and then to tell it. The lesser kinds are the Corsairs, eldar who have banded together but outside of a Craftworld and function like mercenaries, and the Exodites, who are eldar that have settled on a planet. Which of the major factions the lesser are like depends on the group."

He found the humans here overly inquisitive, but in a mostly harmless way. They simply wanted to _know_ , like a Harlequin, and while they might press a point further than was polite, many didn't seem to be malicious about it, more like a child. So very different from those back home. He gave the servicewoman a flat stare at her very leading question but still answered. "The most graceful crew on the ship? I would say the pilot."

He was amused by the stunned and disbelieving silence, and actually got take two bites of his meal, before elaborating. "From your silence, you disagree. Eldar define grace as movement of smooth and deliberate action. I did not say the grace was elegant, refined, or with appeal. He moves like any young eldar would, but with significantly more caution. Though I understand his is because of a defect of birth, rather than his muscles strengthening faster than the bones."

Arlas got three bites while the group thought of their next question, before one of the males asked his, making Arlas grimace. "I have said everything I am going to about why my people are coming here, and will say no more."

The Twins came back in, having gotten out of their armor, and took a nearby seat, Anvil entering and moved to join the group interrogating him as he took the next question. "What were the eldar like before you were the prominent race in your galaxy?"

Arlas frowned at that question, taking a long, slow bite and chewing slowly as he tried to remember some of the older lessons. After a moment, he decided to ignore the question, as he doubted the legend of being directly molded by their gods would impress the humans. "I am not sure I recall exactly what we were like."

The next question began to erode his patience, he was trying to eat as well as be sociable. A mistake he would not soon repeat. "What are your women like?"

That question got the serviceman punched by the immediate humans next to him, though several of the females glared at the questioner instead. Anvil waited for Arlas to finish with his current answer, which was only a stony glare before deliberately taking a bite and ignoring the serviceman, before asking her question. "What kind of gods do the eldar believe in?"

That question caught him by surprise, and he stared at her for a long moment, before shrugging. "There were many, though currently only the Bloody God, the Goddess of Endings, the Goddess of Healing, the Twin God of Chance and Goddess of Luck, and the Laughing God are regularly mentioned any more. Mostly, we leave it to the individual to decide which of the divines is most to their liking."

He was not foolish enough to mention 'Shi who Thirsts,' even here and supposedly beyond her reach, in spite of his nickname among his Craftworld. He could see Anvil trying come up with a polite way to ask the next question, for a mon-keigh, and gave her the subtlest shake of his head, indicating that that line of questioning was done. He was almost proud of her when she did abandon that line of questioning, though she picked one that was almost as bad. "What caused you to become so… enraged on Tuntau?"

He took another bite, fully aware of the word switch she had done, but answered anyway. "The rogue trader had a suit of armor from my people, badly damaged and missing a couple critical components. One of them I would kill every last person on this ship to keep from becoming public knowledge. The other I would have only killed the ground team to protect."

Jaclyn snorted in amusement at his statement, while Joannis asked the next question from across the room. "Would you like the crew to leave you alone so you can eat your meal?"

" **Yes**."

Arlas used a touch of power to give his words a menacing hollowness. His antic gave Jaclyn another laugh, before she dug into her meal. "Alright people, let the elf eat before he decides to try eating humans. And Arlas, next time ask for peace to finish eating."

His disdainful sniff got a nervous chuckle from the ship crew around him, but the three ground crew just laughed again, before everyone turned to their meals.

Once Arlas finally finished, he headed to the Twins, and sat down across from them. "Since everyone is so adamant that I participate in this…tournament in... almost three weeks I believe? What do I need to know about it, should I agree?"

Jaclyn gave a shrug, but Joannis answered before she could. "We would pay your entry fee under your name to avoid appearing endorsed by 'mere' humans, then you would simply show up at the tournament. As I understand it, there are about thirty thousand accepted applicants, with an extra hundred sponsored by each government, though some governments regularly don't fill those slots, and their unfilled slots are added to the open applicants. Since the Council made an offer for you to participate personally, even if you turned it down, I suspect they would fast track your application through.

"As for the tournament itself, I have no idea, I haven't watched any of the previous ones. Lack of interest."

Arlas frowned as he focused on a potential problem. "You mentioned a fee. How much and where would I get that? I am lacking in local currency."

Jaclyn and Joannis shared a look, before Jaclyn spoke. "We will handle it, you are owed some form of payment for your services in helping us, despite our agreement. We can easily cover this as compensation."

He frowned, before reluctantly nodding despite the feeling he was falling for a feint. "A fair deal, it seems. I will participate."

Joannis nodded back. "We will take care of it tonight. Just make sure you are ready for it when we get to the Citadel in a couple weeks."

Jaclyn gave a smirk. "Hate for you to get eliminated in the first round. That would be embarrassing. Also, thanks for settling the betting pool."

Arlas blinked at her. "What?"

He turned at Joannis' gesture, and saw two of the crew passing small sticks to Anvil and another crewmember, before just shaking his head in bafflement. Humans were so strange. He turned back to the Twins, having another couple of questions. "How close are we to finding more information about our target? I assume that is still a priority."

Joannis sighed, and rubbed her forehead. "The Citadel teams have hit a dead end. Saren moved most of his support network out of Citadel space years ago, and what little they have found was either unimportant, or went nowhere. He did have some work for Tonn a few years back, and SAI is chasing that down, having to go through other contacts. Hopefully that will bear fruit soon. We are seeing what our own contacts know, as is Liara, and will let you know if something comes up. And then there is whatever was on that one ship that Saren's geth ambushed and then staffed with husks."

Jaclyn spotted Arlas raising a disbelieving eyebrow at the thought of Dusk having contacts, and laughed. "Yes, shy and antisocial Liara has contacts, almost as good as ours. She is a xenoarchaeologist, and some of her best finds came from information trading, apparently. She has been helping us manage our own contacts, she has an affinity for it, surprisingly, even if she doesn't have the cutthroat nature down yet."

Joannis suddenly looked up. "Wait, I never did get to ask why you activated your omnitool in that last mission, right before the mech ambushed you."

He sighed, before shaking his head slightly. "If you believe it so, and I didn't. I was under the impression one of you were trying to get an update. Tali said she suspected the 'VI' did something to my tool, which caused or allowed it. What is a monkey?"

The Twins only laughed at his question, before turning back to their meals, clearly not deigning to respond. Arlas returned to his ship, and spent that night looking up the tournament, and learned what he could about it.

The tournament accepted a total of thirty two thousand, seven hundred sixty eight applicants, with seven hundred slots reserved for citadel race government though traditionally the elcor, hanar, and volus did not send their own to participate, that would fight through fifteen opponents before finally being declared the winner. The entire tournament was conducted using hologram blades that used mass effect fields to simulate the weight and inertia of a real blade and would shatter when they connected with something other than another hologram blade, which would give the person who hit a point. A judge and a VI would monitor the round, and issue the point or penalties as required.

The first nine rounds were called single point elimination rounds, the next four rounds were two point elimination rounds, and the finals and semi-finals were three point elimination rounds. The entire tournament would be conducted over six days at the Citadel in a large amphitheatre, which seemed to be important for some reason or another; something about hosting the tournament for its twenty fifth centennial celebration or some such nonsense, Arlas didn't read long, before moving onto further research.

He did some research on the rounds, and learned that the terms meant how many points a contestant had before being eliminated. His next research was the basic rules, and learned that physical contact was allowed, though a contestant that caused significant, permanent damage or the death to another contestant would be permanently banned from future tournaments, and face criminal charges from both the injured party's homeworld and the Citadel itself. He quickly skipped past the history and previous winners, not concerned about the mon-keigh's self indulgent ceremonies. He was participating because he was curious as to how he would fare against them, to provide the information to the Craftworld, and certainly not because the mon-keigh had finally worn him down over a month of incessant pestering.

Done with his research, he took a feel for the crew to see how long until the next mission, and discovered he had hours yet to go. After a moment of consideration, he moved from the lander's cockpit where he had been learning what he could through the newest omnitool, and began making some changes to his armor, adding another carrying slot, and a new, larger belt pouch for more grenades. He had a couple other ideas he wanted to try, but would need to wait for more materials before he could work on those.

* * *

Arlas grumbled as the shuttle rocked the next day, wishing the planet they were descending toward was a little less turbulent. The briefing had said the planet suffered from 'extreme volcanic activity,' but he had stopped counting the bumps and other signs of turbulence after the first minute in atmosphere. An eldar landing craft would only experience such signs if the pilot was being particularly energetic to avoid significant ground fire.

Once they landed twenty minutes later, he was the first out of his seat and to start stretching, ignoring the humans around him. The seats were too small for him, and next time he would rather just have his lander drop him off a couple kilometers off and walk in, or do the same with his Vyper. He checked his weapons, bringing his long rifle, sword, pistol, fusion gun, and had included his death spinner. Singer would no doubt have words for him when he got back to the Craftworld for altering the armor, but Arlas didn't care. The extra weight didn't impede him much, and he carried his grenades and a block of multi-purpose wraith webbing without issue in the new pouch. He simply activated his cloak, and waited, while Joannis went over the latest change to the mission, which had been completely dependant on the weather. "Alright, there is a moderate amount of ash falling and four pirates waiting for us, so Arlas will **not** be able to follow us in. Instead, he will wait on the top of structure, and when we call him on his new omnitool that is **not** going to get broken, he will jump in with his teleporter, and the mayhem will start. Entry Team, when he appears, immediately move to the nearest cover. Breach Team, get inside quick as you can, but don't take undue risks. I don't think you want to deal with Doctor Chakwas because you failed to duck."

Most of Breach Team chuckled at that thought, while Arlas just waited. After a moment ensuring everyone in the Entry Team knew what they were doing, the Twins nodded, and Jaclyn gave her twin a wide, menacing smile. "Alright, Ms. Negotiator, let's do this."

Joannis gave her sister a hostile glare, and opened the door of the shuttle, before filing out. Arlas was the fourth one out of the shuttle, standing right next to the door, and watching the ash swirl about as the rest of Entry Team headed into the low built compound. Tali had programmed the leader's omnitool to issue low frequency sound waves, well below what anyone would be able to hear, and then translate the echoes back to make a map of the compound. It wouldn't be perfect, but Arlas could use it to ambush this Darius, and Breach Team would know what was where before they tried to enter a room, and Anvil would be relaying to them how many guards were in each room, even if they would move about as the attack happened.

After the four guards had escorted Entry Team into the base, Arlas carefully climbed up onto the building, and settled in to wait. After only a few minutes of waiting, Kaidan contacted him. "Approximately four hundred meters between the entrance and negotiation room."

Arlas nodded, and continued to wait, listening as the Lioness and Darius began their negotiations, Joannis speaking first. "Lord Darius, I am Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, and have been sent to negotiate your continued loyalty to the Alliance. Shall we begin?"

Darius spoke, his voice a low drawl. "They sent the Hero of Elysium, with the Butcher of Torfan at her side? No, you aren't here to negotiate at all are? Yes, you are here to remove me! Kill me, for doing what the Alliance asked, before they got **GREEDY**! He says so, so you must be."

Arlas frowned as Darius' voice rose to an enraged shriek; he had been told the human was… eccentric, not utterly insane. Joannis, however, kept calm in the face of such antics. "No, we were not, otherwise we would have brought far more than two shuttles. Now, what are your requirements to cease inhibiting the shipments of eezo?"

Darius' heavy breathing could be barely heard for a moment, before he started speaking. "You are lying, aren't you? He says you are lying, but let us play this little farce to the end. First-"

Arlas stopped listening, the man was clearly suffering from either some form of mental disease that caused him to hear voices, or was actually hearing the warrior in the spirit stone he undoubtedly would have held onto. He had no idea why, but whenever a mon-keigh came into possession of a spirit stone, they almost always held onto it, unless they were completely immune to psyker suggestions or the spirit encouraged them to trade it away, and this man definitely wasn't immune, not with how he was acting. This man would be so easy to influence that Arlas suspected that, if he had any ability with suggestions, he could do it from the entrance.

The eldar did not have any talent with psyker suggestions, sadly, so instead he spun up his jump generator, and activated his omnitool. "Entry Team, I suspect he has what I need, ready to commit when you are."

Jaclyn answered him. "Then hurry up and gut this fucker, I am tired of listening to his insane demands. Breach Team, go loud."

Arlas smirked and let the jump generator spin to max power, as the Breach Team exited the second shuttle, and began advancing on the door. "Breach Team, on your entry, will engage."

Ghost gave him a wave, before counting down. "In ten seconds."

At five seconds, the warp generator was screaming in his head, ready to launch him into the immaterium once again, and Arlas finally loosed it. He was ripped once again into the immaterium, and he took a second to ignore the shifting unlights, and the sensation of something massive behind him, before he was deposited on the other side, landing in the middle of a hallway, a bit more than halfway to the target. For a fraction of a second, he frowned, the sensation feeling almost like a calm section of the immaterium back home, before he dismissed the thought and kept moving forward.

He frowned again, having expected to land near the door leading toward the entrance, and charged down the hallway, ignoring the sound of an explosion behind him as he jumped again. He lept into the warp again, and this time he landed right on the table, directly in front of the ranting Darius, just as the alarms started going off. The human didn't even pause. "And finally I want you to say ple- **YOU WILL NOT HAVE HIM! HE IS** GAH **!** "

Arlas silenced the pirate leader by simply yanking his sword from his back and pinning him through the gut to his chair. Not lethal, but it would at least hold him still. Arlas twisted some energy into the sword, causing it to grow a barb near the hilt, and another in the chair, to keep him from trying to remove it, and then disabling the biolock on the sword. Finished securing the leader, he pulled out the fusion gun to fire it at a nearby krogan, vaporizing the guard as he tried to draw his weapon before swinging the butt of the fusion gun into Darius' head. Done fully pacifying the pirate lord, he looked up to find Jaclyn discharging her shotgun into the face of the other krogan that had been flanking the pirate lord, while the other three gunned down four pirates that had been near the door, now helplessly swirling in a singularity.

Arlas smirked at the sight, before turning to the Twins. "Anything further on, or can we push back to meet up with the others?"

Jaclyn shrugged, as she checked her weapon, then scanned the rest of the room. "No idea, we were led here directly."

The Twins shared a look before Joannis started issuing orders. "Arlas, guard that back door. Anyone carrying a weapon comes through, vaporize them. Everyone else, with me, we are pushing back to the entrance. Catch the pirates in a vice between us and Breach Team. Joker, kill the pirate ships."

"Yes ma'am. Finally, something to do. Would you like the two frigates and the cruiser perforated, barbecued, or just flash cooked? Or would you like some variety?"

Joannis just grinned at her omnitool as she replied. "Whatever floats your boat, Joker. Joannis out."

Arlas took a stance near the door, his fusion gun out and ready, before activating his cloak and fading from view, as the others left to began clearing the front of the structure. Once they left, however, Arlas moved to the unconscious form of the pirate lord, and yanked off his chest plate, ignoring the damage to the armor, before carefully removing the small crystal, as long as his main finger and about as wide, from the chain around the human's chest.

He was relieved to see the barbaric human hadn't damaged the crystal to try and secure it, simply using a metal clasp on the top part of the spirit stone to secure it. He yanked the clasp off, and then attached the stone to his armor, feeling a second mind flooding into the psychoreactive armor. Arlas didn't communicate to the eldar in the stone yet, slinking back over to the corner to resume guarding the door. After a moment, the eldar soul finally communicated to him. * _And… you… are?_ *

Arlas kept his focus on the entry to the room, even as he replied. * _Arlas, exarch of the path of the outcast of Craftworld Ae'Imedra. Sent to scout ahead of the Craftworld._ *

* _Finally… rescued from that mon-keigh by a civilized being. I am, or was rather, Kap'eiyl, aspect warrior of the Shadow Spectre shrine, of the Craftworld Ae'Imedra. Attached to the troopship Guided Wrath, of the Survivor Host._ *

Before Arlas could converse more, a krogan and a humanoid in full armor charged through the door he was watching, only to be vaporized by the fusion gun. The next krogan and three turians, however, came through right behind them, and while they were no doubt horrified by what they had seen, they did realize what direction the shot had come from. Arlas dove to the side as shots began pouring into the area where he had been standing, bringing up his jump generator to full speed as he slammed psyker energies into his armor's shield. All of the tiny pellets the guns fired were stopped by his focus on the shield, but that also meant they could see exactly where he was as the cloak lost some of its power, giving him a blurry outline and a shimmering, rippling shield formed. More than enough to shoot at.

Arlas swore as he slammed his fusion gun into its holder on his back with one hand, the other supporting the shield as the krogan advanced with a roar. The turians hadn't stopped firing even after nearly six seconds, and the barrier had turned from an almost clear orb to nearly opaque white, indicating that it was about to fail whether Arlas kept pumping power into it or not. It was meant to stop powerful single attacks, not hundreds of little ones. Arlas grabbed his sword with the hand that had been holding the fusion gun, and desperately jumped, just as he felt the psy-shield go down.

He was in the warp a long moment, far longer than what felt normal, but he still emerged with a sigh of relief, already stabbing and hacking at the turians he had appeared behind. The first one died with a blade through his heart even as he processed the fact his target had vanished. The second died as his head was cut off, realizing something had somehow gotten behind them and starting to turn. The third managed to duck and roll forward, away from the attacker suddenly behind them, to avoid a similar fate, but as he turned he got stabbed in the throat, and then again the face, before the eldar yanked his blade up and out of the skull, finishing the last of the turian pirates. Arlas sighed as he drew his pistol and sprayed the krogan with the monomolecular shuriken, noting that even the disposable humans back home knew to duck or stand behind something in a firefight.

The krogan's armor was made of stronger materials than the turians, and while small splashes of orange blood flew from the elbow and shoulder joints of his armor after his kinetic barrier collapsed, the krogan didn't fall. Instead, the pirate charged him, weapon firing twice as it closed, the first shot missing and the second only grazing the reformed psy-shield, before Arlas closed enough to cut the gun in half, and then stab the Krogan in the face and ripping the blade up, killing it. Arlas' foresense suddenly screamed at him, and he dove backwards as several rounds and a small red rocket flashed through the area he had been standing. A quick check around the corner of the door revealed a horde of charging pirates, making him sigh in vexation as he sheathed his sword and drew his fusion gun. "Twins, found the rest of the pirates, may require assistance."

The spirit stone inhabitant observed the fight through the helmet' sensors, watching as the first shot vaporized a squad of charging humanoids, and then a flurry of shuriken from Arlas' pistol made the rest of the pirates seek cover. * _I thought you said you were a pathfinder._ *

Arlas smirked as he swapped his weapons between hands, and fired the fusion gun again into the next room, mildly thankful for the natural choke point the door caused, before firing a spray of shuriken to keep the pirates' heads down. * _Give it time, it's a slow day. I might get to use my long rifle eventually._ *

 _A/N - The usual author requests go here. Also, new poll up on my profile, toss in your two cents, and have an effect on the story_


	18. Fate of the Guided Wrath

**Chapter 17 - Fate of the Guided Wrath**

 _A/N - There is nothing saying what the eldar use to measure temperature in canon literature, so I came up with my own. A renaming of Kelvin, called 'degrees above void,' though the measurement that they will use are slightly different from actual Kelvin, as space is about 2.7 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero. Using the temperature of empty space as a baseline seems a logical place to base your temperature gauging around. Though I probably won't be using it much._

' _Can you hear the voices too?' - Chaos Space Marines, Dawn of War_

Arlas finished the last pirate off with his long rifle, before putting it onto his back. * _See? Long rifle kills_.*

* _You killed twenty seven mon-keigh, and only three of those were with your long rifle. And only because I reminded you._ *

* _I was trying to save time. So, do I need to try ripping information out of that Darius mon-keigh's head, or do you know anything about the location of your vessel? And on that matter, what can you tell me about it?_ *

Arlas was grateful this eldar was more personable than Yol'Pvera, as otherwise he might start going primitive without someone to talk to. Kap'eiyl wasn't the most outgoing of eldar that Arlas knew, but at least he prefered the living to their war machines, unlike Yol'Pvera. He could also feel the spirit stone inhabitant shifting through some of his memories, finding the one of the Farseer giving him his mission before the spirit replied. * _The Guided Wrath was a dragon class troopship, cruiser sized, carried one hundred thousand Asuryani aboard, including five hundred exarches, three Farseers, a few hundred Wraithguards and a hundred Wraithlords, and the pride of the ship, a single Wraithseer._

 _*I do not know why or how the mon-keigh got on board, but I did extract its location from the leader while driving him mad, though his method of movement through the galaxy is useless to me. Also convinced him that going back for more would only lead to his men rebelling and killing him. Which they likely would, they lost quite a significant portion just getting me._ *

Arlas got the location from the spirit, and allowed himself some grim amusement. * _It is a standard coordinate string. The local mon-keigh use those instead of sensible mental images._ *

Arlas looked over to the door the Entry team had gone through, to see Garrus and Wrex entering the room. "Wrex, Tweaks."

Garrus rolled his eyes at the nickname before replying, while Wrex simply nodded back. "Twins sent us, you thought you might need help?"

Arlas pointed to the door he had just fought the pirates through, before addressing the utter confusion and mild alarm from the spirit at the realization that Arlas was working with mon-keigh. * _They are useful._ *

The spirit sent an amused snort in reply. * _Careful, that is Farseer thinking there._ *

* _I'm a Pathfinder, it's allowed._ *

Arlas pushed off the wall as the spirit sent a long, loud laugh at his deadpanned reply. "Any orders? I already got what I need from the leader."

Garrus simply shook his head. "No idea, we were told to help you hold the location."

Wrex was looking at the destroyed hallway. "At least a dozen doors down here, could be barracks, might be storage."

Arlas didn't move, letting Tweaks talk with the Twins, while he continued to converse with the Shadow Spectre. * _You gave the mon-keigh nicknames?_ *

* _Mildly demeaning, lets them think I am getting familiar and friendly with them, and helps keep me amused. Tweaks there is a Turian, warrior species that thinks they can kick anyone and get away with it. Wrex is a krogan, basically an orc that can actually think and do long term strategy baseline instead of just the Warbosses. We have humans, not the same group as the ones we are familiar with, but physically almost identical though these ones are driven mostly by their lusts._ *

He showed mental images of the next species, since he didn't know if Kap'eiyl had seen them before. * _The asari are basically longer lived, blue humans that wish they were eldar. Salarians seem to be the worst parts of the Adeptus Mechanicus of the Imperium rolled into a mind almost as fast as ours without_ _ **any**_ _limits on their thinking; if they think they can use Science on it or with it, they will. Here, we have the batarians, a group that wishes they were the Fallen Asuryani but don't have the ability, brains, or courage to go that far. These are the drell, almost eldar in physical abilities according to my research, but are servants to the hanar and are biotics instead of psykers. The hanar are exactly what they look like._ *

Kap'eiyl needed a moment to get his amusement under control at the last image. * _Big, stupid looking invertebrate ocean dwellers? Are they all that glorious bright reflective pink?_ *

Arlas nodded. * _Also religious, possibly on the color, but yes. This is an elcor, slow, dumb, and slow, nothing more to be said. And here are the volus._ *

Kap'eiyl would have been in the eldar equivalent of collapsing in gales of laughter at the image of a volus if he had a body. * _Enough! This universe is bad joke. Is there anything here that is actually a threat?_ *

Arlas sent a smirk back at his fellow eldar, glad to finally have someone interested in talking. * _The humans, but that just goes with what we know of humans. The krogan might be, depends on if and how they organize, and if they do, well, we have rangers and pathfinders for a reason. The quarians could possibly be threat, didn't get to them before you gave up, but only if you are foolish enough to get close, they specialize in repairing things and electronics. Since we don't use anything they recognize, they aren't a threat, but then again, we don't recognize what they use, so we have to learn it, which makes them a threat. So… they are a quasi-hypothetical potential threat?_ *

* _Right, that would be a no._ *

Arlas gave a mental shrug, before looking up as the Twins entered the room. "I know where we need to go, but need the ship navigation system. Since you have denied me access to everything but the codex, you will have to unlock it."

Jaclyn gave him an exhausted glare. "Arlas, you nearly vented the hangar bay with your last stunt with the omnitool. With some of the crew not in suits in there."

"And I informed you beforehand that I required assistance in learning what did what, and no one tried to assist. Therefore, it is as much your fault as my own."

Gemling just gave him a sour glare, having come in right behind the Twins. "I am still trying to figure out how you got into that system. It was admin locked, which should only allow the chief engineer, the XO and the captain to access, and yet somehow you got in. Without going through the password verification screen."

Arlas simply shrugged. "Regardless of my aptitude, or lack therefore of, I have what we need from this human."

He nodded to the back of the room, and the door he had fought to hold. "Might still be pirates in the back, perhaps we should clear the rest of the base and see if our ship is still intact?"

The Twins just shrugged, before pointing to the back. "Liara, Ashley, keep the prisoner alive and in our custody; everyone else, advance to contact."

* * *

A day and several hours later, they were orbiting the third planet in the same system. They hadn't found any more pirates, but Wrex had been right about the back rooms. They had been half barracks, half storage, and stuffed to the brim with loot. Arlas had gotten a couple suits of armor and several of the unattached shield generators, all of them lower end things so no one would complain about them missing, but the Twins had found him gathering them, and insisted on him at least taking one of the better sets. He wasn't planning on using them, as none of them were big enough to fit him, but instead he wanted to know how and why they worked before seeing if he could add them to his old carapace armor. If it was easy to add and didn't degrade the plating, he would recommend that the Craftworld consider adding such shielding units to their own infantry; anything that improved an eldar's chance of surviving should be considered. Though doubtless the boring traditionalists would complain, but they did that anyway about everything.

The SAI frigate had dropped in a day after they had finished clearing, securing and looting the base, and the Normandy had relinquished the site and only survivor/prisoner to them, before heading to the coordinates Arlas had provided. The problem was the coordinates had pointed them to the tiny third planet in the system, which had only a thin atmosphere of ethane and carbon dioxide, and was a wasteland of sharp edged rocks and half melted metals, in addition to the incredibly weak magnetic field which caused the planet to be baked by solar radiation. Arlas swore mentally as he looked over the readings from the sensors, even as the twins logged a massive outcropping of some mineral they called Samarium they had found on the first orbital pass.

He knew if the ship was as big as Kap'eiyl claimed it was, he should have been able to sense it psychically from much further from the planet than they were, which only reinforced the suspicion he had that he was looking for a crashed dead ship, holding the souls and corpses of a hundred thousand eldar. He shook his head, before looking at the Twins. "Lioness, are your people going to move into this system in force?"

Joannis looked up, and nodded. "Yes, Nonuel has a significant chunk of eezo in it, and they are planning on turning this entire system into an outpost and resupply center for the sector. Why?"

He pointed at the sensors. "Because there is another crashed eldar ship on this planet. I haven't found it yet, but I know it is there. If we get closer and use the sensors, see if you can locate anything unusual, we might find its location quickly. If not…"

Arlas sighed, before running his right hand through his hair, before pulling it over his shoulder and quickly unbraiding and then braiding the hair with one hand as he thought. "We can… come back... later to find it. Though if the fleet you station here finds it first, do not get anywhere near the crash site or attempt entry. I haven't convinced this crew you aren't going to try and exterminate them yet."

He ignored the shock and anger coming from Kap'eiyl, only promising an explanation later. While he delayed his debate with Kap'eiyl, Lioness nodded. "Alright. Joker give us a series of lower and slower passes around the planet, start with the daylight band, around until we loop around to the start. Arlas, hang by the sensor reads, we don't want to miss your missing ship. That would be tragic."

Arlas sent a feeling of satisfaction to Kap'eiyl, before mentally reaching out to Yol'Pvera. * _Power up the sensors, you are looking for a ship of ours._ *

* _Are they letting me out to do a sweep?_ *

* _Probably not._ *

She sent back a feeling of annoyance, but started up the ship sensors anyway. Done with his co-pilot, Arlas turned his attention to Kap'eiyl. * _Let them think they have a choice, and these two will gladly help. Especially since they know we Asuryani have laser and plasma weapons, and think we might trade some of the tech, or at least give hints, if they are helpful._ *

His newest spirit companion sent back understanding, but laced with suspicion and doubt. However, Kap'eiyl didn't send anything else, and settled back into the gem, observing what Arlas was doing.

After a hour of circling the planet, and right before they finished the first full scan of the planet, Arlas spotted something interesting. They had already found several dozen easy to access mineral lodes, but nothing that seemed to be what he was looking for, until they hit a section of the planet near the end of their first full sweep that had just entered the night side. Arlas frowned, and tapped the scan, trying to get a better view, his movement not going unnoticed. Tali, who had come in to help optimize the sensor readings, noticed his movement first. "Spot something Ar… I mean, museum escapee?"

Arlas didn't answer at first, staring at the render of the scan for a full minute, before speaking. "Possibly. Joker, take us back, there might be something."

Tali had to send the coordinates to Joker, as the nearby humans started getting excited about finally getting some results. Once Joker had swung the ship around, and did a focused, high powered scan of the area, though, everyone else seemed disappointed. It looked like an empty cavern in the ground. Arlas, however, reached out to Yol'Pvera. * _Scan directly below us._ *

After a moment, Yol'Pvera sent back surprise and then despair. * _That is them._ *

She couldn't show or really tell him what she had scanned, but Arlas knew it was bad if she was reacting like that. "That is it. Let the Twins know, I leave in ten minutes, no later. If they aren't on the lander, they can deploy from the mako or jump."

The Twins had stepped out to get something from the mess hall. Arlas saw them stepping into the elevator, but they waited for him and Tali to get in before letting it head down. "Found it?"

Arlas gave Jaclyn a flat stare, before reaching down and pulling his helmet back on. "Why else would I have made that declaration?"

The elevator was silent after his response, and thankfully the door opened before he got any more inane questions, he was not in a tolerant mood at the moment. He headed straight for the lander, not even nodding to Wrex as he strode up the ramp into the bay. The krogan gave the Twins a look as they hurried to their lockers to begin pulling on their armor, before turning to Tali. "What's going on?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, Arlas flew the lander out of the bay, and quickly descended toward the surface. On board was Liara, Tali, Ashley, the Twins, and Wrex. Garrus had been torso deep in the turret of the Mako, cursing up a storm as he tried to fix a 'minor bug, will only take five more minutes,' that had taken two hours at that point. Icivia had been in the communication and briefing room for the past half hour, apparently having an exceedingly important conversation. Kaidan was in the med bay, having to lie down on one of the tables as he had literally collapsed earlier in the mess hall from another migraine.

Arlas transferred Kap'eiyl into one of the spirit stone holders on the lander as they descended to the planet, before tapping his omnitool and opening a channel to the squad. "This is an eldar ship, so I will have lead on this. If that is a problem, stay in the lander.

"We are descending toward a crashed eldar ship. We are to make entry, and do a brief scouting of the interior until I find an active console or someone to talk to, and see what kind of damage the ship has suffered. The defenses and defenders inside are unknown, but I suspect it will mostly be passive and intermittent static defenses, with very few guards and active defenses. However, I will dictate when and how we engage as well as disengage, as I may be able to bypass some of the interior defenses. Entry will be gained either by breaching the hull, or by using an existing breach."

He finished his briefing, and let Yol'Pvera do most of the flying. After a moment, Ashley spoke. "How big is this vessel we are checking out?"

"It was a standard troop conveyance vessel, in the cruiser range, so it only carried one hundred thousand troops, likely in stasis pods."

There was a moment of deafening silence in the troop bay, before Joannis spoke. "Wait, one hundred thousand troops? How big was the vessel?"

Arlas just sent back a feeling of smug amusement as he watched through the ship itself. Tali brought up the scan again, and examined the image. "Arlas, that hole you were examining. How much of that hole was your ship?"

"All of it."

Tali looked at the image again, before tapping a couple of keys on her omnitool. "Arlas, that hole is over one hundred meters deep, five hundred wide, and nearly four kilometers long. That is not a cruiser."

"It is to my people. As I told Councilor Tevos, your people's inadequacies, issues and problems are not mine or my people's."

A moment later, he enabled the bay viewer, showing the passengers the blasted hellscape they were flying over, though as far as hellscapes go, Arlas had seen much, much worse. It was only unending rough terrain of dark grey rocks mixed with black rocks, with the occasional stretch of dark brown rocks. Rarely, there were even light grey streaks in the rocks, but for the most part, it was rolling plains of rocks with the occasional hill, or the rare mountain of rock. It was hot, practically without an atmosphere, and light on minerals, making it lacking in any redeeming qualities. A few seconds after turning on the viewer, the lander crested a small mountain, and found the first indication that Arlas was not just pranking them.

A slowly widening trench, polished smooth from some great impact, started in front of them, the trench angled to one side away from the mountain and eventually reached more than three hundred meters across. Arlas did a slow turn, and rose, showing the trench went on for kilometers and after nearly a half minute of flying at a reduced speed, found that the trench ended at the edge of a couple kilometer wide and hundreds of kilometers long fissure, right beside the base of a massive, jagged mountain range.

The fissure was only a few hundred meters deep, likely formed when the planet had a massive impact with something eons ago which also formed the range above it, but Arlas wasn't interested in paleoseismology, and simply directed the lander into the fissure without hesitation. The trench continued at the bottom of the fissure, but now the trench was partially or even completely covered in sections by rocks. But even the rocks couldn't hide that the trench he was following kept widening, well past the five hundred meter width the hole had hinted at, or that at several points in the fissure massive holes had been gouged out of the sides by some immense impact, dropping tons upon tons of rock into the trench.

Another minute or so of flying at a reduced pace so the primitives in the back would stop screaming about cliffs and such, passing gouges where he thought pieces of the ship might have landed before eventually dissolving back into the immaterium, they reached what he suspected was the ship. If it was still worthy of being called that. It looked like a small mountain of rubble had fallen into the fissure, but small pieces of off-white wraithbone poked through in a couple spots, hinting at the massive ship buried under it that Arlas could finally sense.

Everyone in the troop bay could hear him sigh in vexation, before slowly circling the pile of rubble that blocked the entire fissure, looking for a decent landing place. Eventually, he settled the lander in the fissure near one of the off-white outcroppings of exposed wraithbone, and disconnected from the lander. Yol'Pvera and Kal'eiyp would stay in the lander, along with everyone that didn't want to risk the rubble or follow his leadership.

Everyone else had their helmets on, so he opened the bay, and looked at the rubble pile. It was significantly bigger on the ground than in the air for some reason. * _Stay here, I will look around, find a safe spot to either breach or enter._ *

Arlas started looking around the rubble pile, using the taller pieces to survey more of the pile faster. It wasn't perfect, but the planet was a touch hot, a 'mere' 400 degrees above void in the fissure's shade. Since the day had just passed, no doubt it would continue to drop significantly as night wrapped the land in its hold. However, it was still hot enough that Arlas had to retreat twice to the lander to cool off before he finally found a spot where the hull was already open. A quick glance inside showed rubble clogging the interior, the ship's former ceiling was at a slight angle and now acting as the floor, and while the doors were completely sealed, damaged and warped to the point of never opening again with even a basic glance at them, a hole had been blown in the wall, heading deeper into the ship.

Arlas figured he had found the way in, at least without fully scouting the interior, so he headed back to the lander. He entered the lander, and sent them what he had found, simply using an image instead of words as he gave Yol'Pvera the location at the same time. It only took a moment for the landing craft to arrive, so Arlas took the time to remind everyone to not touch anything, and to follow his directions inside. Once the landing craft had settled, the ramp nearly touching the breach Arlas had found, he gestured for everyone to follow.

He barely looked around as he entered, but did pause as he got to the second break in the walls, and realized that the rest were only slowly following. While there wasn't anything to see here, just an empty passage with two badly warped blast doors, there were enough rocks that only the asari and quarian were making good time. Both were abusing their less inhibited movement thanks to their lighter plating and the lower gravity, and while Lioness could have followed, she was staying near her twin. Wrex and Ashley were the last two to arrive cursing quietly, and Arlas moved into the next room. Arlas saw this was a modest sized storage room, and he spotted dozens if not hundreds of crates scattered about the room. Many had been damaged, bent or partially crushed, but most had simply shifted, rather than breaking open. The few crates that had been breached spilled raw wraithseeds about the room, not configured for any particular task, and without a wraith singer, utterly useless, but they did create a hazard for the mon-keigh with him.

He frowned, before leaping up onto one of the stacks, and noting a path through, before gesturing for the group to stop. He picked up one of the small seed, smaller than the size of his palm, before turning to Wrex. "Wrex, how long would it take for you to regrow your arm if an incendiary explosion took it off?"

Wrex snorted, but seemed to understand that Arlas was going somewhere with the question rather than making conversation. "Centuries if ever, krogan regeneration is good, but not that good."

Arlas turned, and gave the small seed an easy toss at the krogan after infusing it with a touch of his psy-energies. "Then think fast."

The seed was a blur as it streaked toward the krogan at the front of the group, but Arlas had underestimated Wrex's reflexes, and he sidestepped out of the way of the easy toss by eldar standards. Liara was standing directly behind him, however, and either wasn't paying attention or simply lacked the proper reflexes, and took the small wraithseed to the chest. She yelped at the unexpected impact, but before anyone else could move, the seed suddenly shot up and away from the group as Arlas gestured, stopping in the clear area between them and the eldar, where the seed abruptly finished destabilizing and exploded.

The explosion was pure warp energy, so it created little in the way of a shock wave, but it produced significant heat as it flashed into warp fire in a heartbeat, and vanished just as quickly. Arlas spoke before anyone could get angry about the fact he just put the group in danger to make a point. "Some of you have been questioning how effective my people's biolocks are, as well as the consequences of trying to brave them. I trust I have answered that question to your satisfaction?"

The Twins shared a look, before nodding. "Yes, though there were better ways to do that."

Arlas shrugged, and began moving crates to ensure the clear path he had spotted was easy to traverse as possible. "Perhaps, but I believe that the demonstration created a far more lasting impression than just explaining it would have."

It only took him a moment to finish moving the few crates out of the way of the group, before he started toward the far exit. One he got that door open, he looked around, and followed the only open path, as a section of the ceiling had collapsed, sealing the passage to his left. As the group headed deeper into the ship, Tali glanced at each door they passed, one on each side every one hundred meters, and eventually asked a question. "Why aren't we checking these rooms?"

Arlas didn't hesitate or even look at the doors. "These are for material storage. From what I know of how these types of ships are layout, the outermost ring of rooms is weapon, fighter and repair bays, then a layer of reinforced armor, then material storage rooms, another layer of armor, then armories, troop living quarters or storage depending on the mission, and finally the important things like life support, engineering, the bridge, the engine room, or the like."

Tali nodded, but Liara asked her own question. "Then why did we enter to a hallway and then a storage room?"

Arlas glanced back, before resuming his walk, looking for either a lift or a specific rune in ultraviolet ink near a door, which would allow access to the next layer of rooms. "Because the outermost section got torn loose there, obviously. It did crash on the planet and leave a trench several hundred kilometers long."

He did pause outside one room, and contact Yol'Pvera, before entering the room. "Wait here, I am getting some supplies for me and my co-pilot."

As he entered the room, he heard Jaclyn speak. "So when are we getting to meet this mysterious co-pilot?"

"When you tell me what a monkey is."

The closing door ended the conversation, though he could hear Jaclyn making unpleasant suggestions about his probable parentage and partners through the squad channel. "Lynx, squad channel is still open."

" **SUCK! A! DICK!** "

"No, I prefer females, thank you."

It didn't take long to find the extra patch seeds Yol'Pvera had suggested picking up, and after adding several other seed sizes and types to the crate he had selected, mostly a number of weapon and armor seeds so he could do some experimenting, he carried the crate out, enjoying the ease that the reduced gravity made moving the crate. It was a quick trip to the lander to drop off the crate, and then he rejoined the group, where Jaclyn was still grumbling. Arlas got the group moving, and finally found a hallway, though the upside down nature of the ship made getting the door open something of a chore, especially as this section didn't have power. Arlas eventually solved the problem by sliding his sword through the gap in the center of the door, causing the bottom half to immediately fall into the floor as he sliced through the locking mechanisms.

As they ducked under the door, Tali glanced over at him. "So, what did you get from the storage room?"

Arlas looked over the hallway, but the two turrets on the actual floor of the ship, now its ceiling, hung limply, indicating a lack of power. At least he didn't have to worry about being torn apart by a hail of monomolecular shuriken moving at several times the speed of sound, and even worse, these looked to be the mid-sized ones, meant to shred light armored vehicles and heavy infantry, but they fired slower than the lightest ones, meant to shred infantry swarms. Done making sure the group wasn't walking into an ambush, he answered Tali's question as he led the way forward. "Some supplies for making repairs and modifications to my weapons."

He got to the edge of the hallway, and reached up to run his hand against one of the turrets, before glancing around the corner. "This is where we are likely to start running into active patrols and defenses. So do as I direct, and touch nothing. I don't know what has power, or what is still active, so avoid as much as you can, and we should get through this alive."

Liara glanced around nervously. "So… if it is so dangerous, why are we here?"

Arlas gave an indifferent shrug. "Because everyone invited themselves, in spite of my warnings."

He was glad for his helmet as everyone glared at him, it kept them from seeing his smirk of amusement. He took another look down the hallway, before stepping into it. "This is the troop living areas or storage. For this ship and its mission, likely storage."

They moved along the passage for a few minutes, before taking an intersecting passage deeper into the ship. Arlas led the way, and for the most part the groups kept in a semi-sensible patrol; Ashley following behind him, with Joannis and Jaclyn behind her. Next was Tali and Liara, with Wrex watching the back, especially as they moved deeper into the ship. After a few more turns, Wrex finally looked at one of the doors, and spoke up. "So, what does the inside of the rooms here look like?"

Arlas shrugged as he paused in one door frame, using his long rifle's scope to scout ahead. "Depends on what exactly their mission was. If it was simply explore, then they would have a stasis pod, a bed, table, small storage container, and a chair in each room. If colonize, then just the stasis pod and storage. Wouldn't be very big, we don't need much room to rest, and the warriors would spend most of their time either meditating or training if they weren't in stasis."

Arlas abruptly stopped, and twisted his head slightly, before hissing. "Damn, its moving faster than I expected. It might have seen us. Move faster."

Arlas picked up the pace, no longer moving at a light jog, but at a slow run for the others. For him, it was a gentle jog so he could check every room they passed. After a moment, the others could hear something thudding down the hall they had just come from, approaching the turn, its steps slow and deliberate, but heavy enough to be clearly audible on the deck of the crashed ship. Just when Arlas was thinking they would have to turn and try to fight what was coming, a fight he was **not** anticipating enjoying, he spotted what he was looking for; a door that was already partially open but only a few centimeters.

Arlas quickly glanced at the door from close up to measure how open it had been, and then yanked it open to frown at what was inside. Turning back to the group, he gestured them inside. "Get inside, and try to not touch anything."

The inside of the room was… not a mess, most of the fabrics and other soft materials had long since degraded away from the changes in heat, even this deep into the ship, but the interior of the room had sand up to the ankles on the ground. The eldar warrior in the pod, a Swooping Hawk aspect warrior judging from the armor on a stand next to the pod, had fallen free of their restraints to lay against the clear cover of the pod, a skeleton clad in a bodysuit, it's uncovered skull leering at the group. Jaclyn and Joannis waved their omnitools at the armor and pod respectively, as Arlas yanked the door to the position it had been in. Liara was examining the bodysuit clad skeleton, idly rubbing her thumb against her other palm as she spoke. "What kind of warrior was he?"

Arlas didn't look away from the door, listening to the slowly approaching footsteps. "She. And a Swooping Hawk. Light flying units that would deploy above their opponents, drop grenade packs, and then drop in to massacre the survivors, before moving around to flank other units."

The group glanced at him, as the footsteps kept getting louder. Wrex snorted. "And you can guess that without looking at the skeleton for longer than a second?"

After a few seconds, Arlas stepped away from the door, and shrugged. "My Craftworld has a population imbalance, no one knows why. We have about seven women for every three men."

Arlas was glad for the radios, especially as he watched a seven meter tall wraithlord stomp down the hallway. After a second, he gestured for Tali to approach the door. "Switch your omnitool to record, and point it out the door in the direction we were going when I say to."

He examined the wraithlord, noting that the colors were the same as the ones he was familiar with; a dark grey torso and limbs, while the head, shoulder pads, and tabard were the color of deep, burnished gold. Instead of the distortion cannon most wraithguards carried, this wraithlord was outfitted with a pair of massive gauntlets that crackled with energy similar to his sword, and attached under the forearms were a flamethrower on each arm. But most alarmingly was the scatter laser mounted on its shoulder. That weapon would butcher the group without the Wraithlord slowing down, the locals' armor was too thin to resist the powerful weapon, and the narrow corridor would force them to group up and be cut down in a few bursts from it. Better to avoid the encounter entirely, and that wasn't even taking into consideration the fact he didn't want to fight a wraithlord from his own craftworld.

He waited for the wraithlord to pass by the room, apparently not aware of the group, before waving at Tali. "Go ahead. We will wait a moment before moving."

Once Tali had finished the quick recording, he let her show it off while he went back to the door, watching the retreating wraithlord. As he did that, Joannis activated the squad channel. "Arlas, what was that, how many are there likely to be, and how dangerous was it?"

"Wraithlord, at least a dozen wandering the ship if they have the usual amount active, if not more and not counting the hundred minimum wraithguard, and that one was extremely dangerous, it was outfitted to kill groups like ours. I could have disengaged and survived, but the rest of you would have been slaughtered. Which was why I suggested letting me do this alone. I can move among them without an problem, but you six are going to set off every alarm and alert every patrol we come across."

He didn't bother suggesting the others head back, he already knew their answer was no and even why each would say so. Wrex because the fighting would be fun, Ashley because the Twins wouldn't go, and the Twins because he was technically part of their squad, so needed support. Tali and Liara would be less concrete with their answers, Tali mumbling something about learning a bit about his something or other, and Liara would quietly agree with Tali, making the three human females very amused about something; blasted mon-keigh.

So instead he simply opened the door, and headed deeper into the ship. Tali stared at his back for a moment as the group followed. "So how do those wraithguard work? Can't be AI or VI controlled, no electronics my omnitool could find, as usual with your weird stuff."

Arlas considered her question for a moment, before answering with a shrug. "We put the soul of a dead eldar warrior in the shell, and they drive it."

Tali gave him a flat glare, before throwing up her hands and muttering a few words in her own language under her breath as she slowed to join the others, about him making things up. The next hour was a slow trek through the half destroyed ship, and they had to backtrack several times as their path became blocked by collapsed bulkheads or buckled plating, or they came across several patrols, or they started heading back toward the exterior. Tali had been working on a map, so the group had a vague idea where they were, and more importantly how to get out, but no one was really worried yet. They had had to dodge into rooms several times already, and had learned a bit about the various types of warriors the eldar fielded, though after they had entered the last room, Arlas had cursed out loud, before giving a short and very terse response, and then stopped responding to questions at all.

They had finally found a way through the storage areas after leaving that room and letting a patrol of two wraithguard pass, and the still silent Arlas led them into the hallway. He paused as they entered, but the four sentry turrets on the end, one heavy, one medium, and two light shuriken cannons, were all unpowered, so he pressed on. Tali glanced at Arlas' back, before turning to Joannis. "Any idea why a Farseer corpse would upset him more than the others?"

Joannis gave the quarian a shrug. "Farseers are the civic leaders of the Craftworld, from what I understand. More than that, I don't know. Everyone is sort of scrambling for any information on them."

Arlas was too focused on getting through the charnel house of a crashed ship, so ignored the conversation behind him, though he wouldn't say why he was upset if they pressed. What so upset him was the fact the Farseer had died early, rather than from the natural consequence of their power overwhelming their body and causing it to crystallize. The resulting crystal was then joined to the Infinity Circuit at the heart of the Craftworld, causing the Craftworld to grow and become capable of housing even more eldar souls and bodies.

Arlas looked up as they approached a sealed door, and after a moment of concentration, nodded. "We are in an area with power. Be wary. The bridge should be on the other side of that door."

Everyone else started readying weapons and powers, until he projected his amusement. Liara looked at him, before suddenly understanding dawned on her face, visible through the clear face mask she wore instead of a helmet. "Lasers, your people primarily use lasers. Kinetic barriers are almost useless against them."

Arlas nodded. "Good, you **are** paying attention. But considering most of the weapons the guards are equipped with, not getting in a fight would be the only way to survive."

He looked at the group as they stared blankly at him, before he sighed. "Fine, I will explain what most of the weapons here do when we get back. The nice ones will kill you messily. The not nice ones will make you wish they had killed you messily. For the moment, just wait here."

Jaclyn leaned against the wall, her arms crossed. "And if a patrol comes by?"

"Won't, the dust on the floor is undisturbed."

Everyone looked down at the floor, and noticed that he was right, the dust on the floor was not very deep, but solid and completely covered the ground. "And if something comes by?"

"I will hopefully have convinced the guard inside before then."

Joannis' head tilted slightly. "What guard? I thought you just said…"

Arlas sighed. "Who is the expert on the systems here? When I say there is a guard inside, there is a guard inside. Besides, remember those armor systems I was talking about? One of them is why Tali can't sense anything inside the wraith forms."

Tali's eyes narrowed. "Wait, you were being serious, about the dead piloting those things? And that would mean Yol'Pvera is dead, she was in one of those things you called Wraithguards."

The eldar groaned and rubbed his forehead, before turning and heading down the last hall. "Later, Tali."

Wrex let him walk about four steps, before calling out to him. "It's later, start talking."

Arlas sighed, before tapping his omnitool, and closing the squad channel. Once at the door, he realized he could feel the small power plant humming through his feet, directly under the bridge where the emergency power generator was, rather than just with his psy-senses. He winced at that thought, and knew that while the wraithguard and wraithlords were undoubtedly trying to prevent further damage to the ship, they were losing the battle against time and the elements. He took a deep breath, focusing his thoughts to something more appropriate for a Craftworld eldar, and then touched the door, causing it to sigh open, before he stepped through. He looked around the ruined bridge of the ship, and winced internally. Plates had fallen off the floor-turned-ceiling, and the various stands that crew would use had been warped or ripped off in several places.

But more concerning was the heavily decorated wraithlord standing in the middle of the bridge. Instead of the usual colors and weapons, this one had a pale white torso and limbs, and a silvery tabard and shoulder pads, while its head was jet black and adorned with red runes. And instead of the power gauntlets and flamers, this wraithlord carried a massive spear in one hand, while its other arm had an ornate shield attached, and a starcannon was mounted on its shoulder. It wasn't until he realized that the wraithlord was directly tracking him, not affected by the distortion that all the spirits of the eldar in the wraith forms suffered from, that he realized it wasn't a wraithlord, but a far rarer and more powerful variant called a wraithseer.

He shivered slightly in atavistic respect, realizing that the wraith forms that had been patrolling the ship had to have been aware of the intruders, and had allowed them to pass. He started toward the wraithseer, deliberately putting his weapons away, keeping his movements slow, sure and fluid as he slowly approached. He was a quarter of the way across the bridge when his omnitool abruptly vibrated, and he tapped the device to open the communication channel. "Bad time, what is it?"

Joannis' voice was calm and steady, belying the fear her words revealed she had to be under. "Arlas, two of the wraithlords and four wraithguard just turned the corner, and are not moving. They are looking right at us, and have been for a half minute."

He brought his hand up to the side of his head, silently telling the wraithseer he was talking with someone even as he continued to approach. "They have a wraithseer leading them, it allowed us to get this far. I believe it wishes to converse with me. Don't draw your weapons, they will not help and will cause the wraith forms to attack."

He could hear several of the others start speaking, but cut them off as he was approaching the wraithseer. "Ask later."

He turned off the channel as Jaclyn snarled something about his insistence on doing things later, and finished his approach toward the wraithseer. *( _Greetings, revered Wraithseer, I am Arlas, Pathfinder of Craftworld Ae'Imedra. I apologize for the trespass, but wished to ascertain the situation with my own senses._ )*

He gave a small but elegant bow, holding it for a second before straightening. After a moment, the Wraithseer responded, its form as still as a statue since it had determined he was approaching it, its mental tone revealing the inhabitant to have been male before they had died. * _You keep fascinating company and interesting equipment. For a pathfinder. You may call me... Del._ *

 _A/N - You have NO idea how strong the desire was to make the Wraithseer's name Tim. And make references to big pointy teeth, leaping, and looking at the bones._


	19. Infestation on the Guided Wrath

**Chapter 18 - Infestation on the Guided Wrath**

'… _and remember, always piss off your opponent. An angry enemy is one that isn't thinking clearly.' - Warp Spider Exarch Xanthon, Craftworld Ae'Imedra_

Joannis leaned against the wall, watching the squad while Jaclyn watched the eldar mechs. Wrex and Ashley were both calm, though Wrex was keeping an eye on the eldar without actually turning toward them, and Tali was doing something on her omnitool, but it was Liara who surprised her the most. She had half expected the asari to be panicking, but she simply stared at the wraiths watching them while rubbing her thumb against the palm of her other hand. After a moment, Joannis headed over to the asari. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Liara turned to her, her expression under her clear mask baffled. "What?"

"Sorry, really old human expression, I was asking what you were thinking about. You have been staring at the eldar walkers since they arrived."

She flushed slightly, before turning back to the wraith forms at the end of the hallway. "I was wondering if what Arlas said was true, about their dead piloting them. Or if he was just pulling our crests again. He does seem to enjoy doing that. But what I was also wondering was how they did that, if he was telling the truth. And why they would ask such a burden on their departed."

Joannis gave Liara a pat on her shoulder, as her face was covered with a plate helm around the visor she usually wore prevented the asari from seeing her grin. "This is the same man that spoke in a monotone for a month just to mess with us, I am almost certain he was just screwing with us."

She headed over to her sister after Liara gave a small nod, noting that Wrex had moved over to talk to Tali on a short ranged channel, leaning over her omnitool. She hesitated for a second, before continuing to her sister, switching to their private channel. "Status?"

Jaclyn gave an indelicate snort. "Reamed."

Joannis sighed, picking up her real thoughts. "That good huh?"

Jaclyn subtly indicated each of the six eldar walkers in turn, emphasizing her points. "The big one in front, good to finally know why the halls are so tall, I mean I know we saw a recording of one earlier, but this puts it into perspective. But anyway the big one in front is carrying a sword like Arlas' but bigger, and has a weapon identical to that first Wraithlord we saw on its shoulder. The second, at the back, doesn't appear to have flamers, but does have two barrels under each fist, and a cannon identical to the one his single seat speeder carries on its shoulder. Of the four smaller ones, one is carrying a weapon we saw mounted on a turret on the way in, two of them are carrying weapons that ripped perfectly spherical one meter holes out a thresher maw at a hundred meters, and the last one is carrying something that looks like a flamethrower, judging from my visor's amplification showing a tank and a small glowing ring around the barrel."

Jaclyn paused, before continuing. "Though I do like that their flamer tanks are partially integrated into the weapon, and lie flat against it. Harder to snipe or overload the weapon that way. I think I will send the idea to mom, let her sort out the details."

Joannis smirked at her sister's last comment, before expressing her amusement. "Everything going on, and you are most impressed with their flamethrowers? Savage."

"Hey, I am going to be in the enemy's face anyway, might as well set it on fire. You were always complaining about me only having three fighting methods, charging, meleeing or shotgunning, now I have a fourth."

She gave her twin a glare, ignoring her smirk which she could read through her posture, before moving over to the oddest pair up in the group. Before picking up Wrex and Tali, if someone had told her that a krogan would become an honorary uncle to a quarian, she would have waited for the rest of the joke. Now, after spending time with those two, it felt so natural it was impossible to imagine otherwise. She stepped around Tali's free shoulder, and looked down. "What are you two doing?"

Wrex simply continued to watch Tali's omnitool, while the quarian shrugged with one shoulder, still tapping away at her omnitool. "Trying to detect the ship we are inside. I am literally standing on top of this material, surrounded by this material, and my omnitool can only detect it about… two percent of the time, at most, and never long enough to get a good scan of it. If I can figure out how to detect the material, I might be able to figure out why it is so hard to detect, and replicate without needing an eldar's help. If that works, and I can work it into other materials, like my suit or plating for a ship, my people might have a chance against the geth."

Wrex snorted. "Still think that is a fool's goal. Better off finding some planet in the Traverse or the Terminus, settle down for a couple centuries, focus on building up and **then** hit them."

Joannis sighed, understanding both sides of the argument, but refused to throw her opinion in the debate, mostly because it was clear those two were continuing an argument that had been going on long before this mission began. She simply patted Tali's shoulder in sympathy. "I am certain that whatever you bring back will be a great gift to the fleet."

Tali paused in her manipulation of the omnitool, before shaking her head. "I am the daughter of an admiral, Shepard, I have to bring back something… extraordinary. Not minerals, not some little tug boat or fighter, something… something."

She waved her free hand vaguely at the last part, and Joannis smiled, feeling for her. "Believe me, I know that feeling. My mom is the XO of one of the Alliance's dreadnaughts, and she still finds time to design new equipment. She was trained as an engineer, I think you would like her. I know she would love to meet you."

Joannis glanced at the door to the bridge, before leaning in conspiratorially. "Actually, Jaclyn and I are planning to meet her on the Citadel during the tournament, since Arlas is going to participate. She wants to see the ship, meet the crew and ground team, and will be around for most of the week on leave."

Tali nodded absently. "Sounds like it might be enjoyable…"

Wrex laughed. "Hah, meet the woman that birthed you two? I wouldn't miss meeting her for a lot of things. She any good in a fight?"

Joannis glared at the krogan, before shaking her head at him and moving away without a word. Done checking in with everyone else, she moved to the last person on the ground team in the hallway, who was also watching the six eldar units watching them, and opened a private channel. "Ashley. How you doing?"

Ashley didn't take her eyes off their guards, standing at ease near the wall. "Good to go ma'am, just musing on the irony of being guarded by the fellows of an ally for coming in to try and help."

Joannis hummed at that thought, turning her attention to the guards as well, noting that, even after a quarter of an hour, they still hadn't moved after taking position blocking the hall back out. Their weapons were in hand, but not pointing at the group, instead in a ready carry position. She wasn't going to complain about the situation. Certainly better than being killed messily, or in a way that would make her wish she had been. "It could be worse, Ash."

Ashley snorted at that. "True, they could be shooting. Though I do have to wonder how tough that material really is. I mean, it looks tough, but his little hovercraft had two holes and a dent after dealing with that one turian pirate, Hailat I think his name was? And I know those weapons weren't up to specs."

The lieutenant commander snorted in amusement. "Elanos Haliat, and you are right. However, this is a lot more material than the flier had, and I remember the two holes being in the canopy, not the material. All he had was a dent, and that was in the metal shield of the craft's engine, not the actual… whatever this stuff is."

Ashley nodded as Joannis knocked on the wall next to her. "Still, they seem to build almost everything out of it, so it would be nice to know how tough it is, in case they ever decide to… I don't know, take all us women or something."

Joannis noticed the noticeable pause before she gave the example, and snorted at the given one rather than the one Ashley had been about to give. "Doubtful, he mentioned they have significantly more women than men. Kind of wonder how that works, do the guys just have harems, or do they not have long term relationships? Or do the women get to pick a male they like, the male knocks them up, and then move on, unaware of what love is?"

Ashley chuckled at the last option, before nodding. "I am thinking the last one ma'am. He certainly hasn't noticed anything the crew has tried."

Joannis turned and tilted her head, inviting the marine to continue, who happily obliged her. "Oh, some of the crew have been making subtle advances to him, and he hasn't reacted to any of them beyond slight confusion that I have seen."

Joannis let her head tilt further, before sighing. "Is this something I need to take care of?"

Ashley shrugged. "Dunno ma'am. He certainly isn't reacting negatively from what I have seen, else you would know from the Doc, considering he decked Wrex that one time. And I know three women and one male have made passes. The male was the one that got the confused reaction."

She glanced behind her at the rest of the group, before turning back to face their guards. "Though I think our two present female non-humans might have a little crush on him."

Joannis glanced at the marine in surprise. "Are you sure?"

Ashley snorted, but her smirk was audible over the communications channel. "Ma'am, please. I have three younger sisters, I know when someone is getting a crush. Most likely started for Tali when he single handedly rescued her from that stripper bar, and Liara on Therum. I can't tell if he is encouraging or discouraging them, he tends to jerk everyone's chain around for fun or out of habit. Better than some, he at least takes getting pranked back in stride, except when Icivia does it."

Joannis couldn't help chuckling softly at the reminder. "Think he has forgiven her for giving him a reputation for being into asari bondage and kidnapping?"

"No more than she has forgiven him for slighting her on the Citadel in front of the other Spectres in charge of Councilor Tevos' security."

Joannis winced at that, Jaclyn had been on the Spectre servers as that group had gone off duty and learned of the incident before laughing about it in the mess hall later. Joannis' humor left her quickly. "Right, forgot about that. Hopefully neither of them are nursing a grudge. I don't think the ship could take the grudge match."

She glanced back at the door Arlas had gone through, before dismissing Ashley, and heading back over to her twin. "How much longer is Arlas going to take? It has been a half hour."

* * *

Inside the room, Arlas gazed up at the towering form in charge of the vessel. The Wraithseer didn't have eyes, but Arlas could easily feel the piercing gaze of the spirit within it staring down at him. For a moment, neither moved, before the spirit harrumphed in Arlas' mind. * _So you at least remember the traditional greetings, even if they are_ _almost_ _unseemingly hurried. Very well, I will refrain from judgement. For now._ *

Arlas didn't reply, simply stalking forward, and offered a hand to the massive Wraithseer, before opening up his mind. He was aware that his ghosthelm was making it more difficult for the Wraithseer to speak to him, but that didn't mean it was hard. It was simply a gesture of courtesy, to expedite the conversation. Most of the time he wouldn't have bothered, but he was worried what the others would do if left alone too long. So he was going to pass his memories to the Wraithseer, hoping to finish this quickly.

He guided the seer to his briefing and a brief overview of his training, before letting him review everything that had happened after his departure from the Craftworld. Arlas knew it would take him about an hour to cover each week of memories from another eldar, and the mon-keigh would likely only be able to process things at a rate of one real hour for each day. The seer took about ten minutes to go over three months of memories, and a few more minutes to consider everything, before he reluctantly sent his understanding. * _Very well, I can see why you have done as you have, even if I do not approve._ *

Arlas refrained from sending his sarcastic thanks, as the Wraithseer could easily destroy him offhandedly for an insult. After a few minutes of waiting, a massive hologram suddenly formed around Arlas, making him cry out as his helmet's optics blinded him for a moment. Once he got his sight back, he walked out of the hologram to give the Wraithseer a glare and a mental grumble, before turning back to the hologram. After a moment, the light construct shifted, and he realized it had been a topside view of the ship, but was now oriented for the ship's new gravity.

He looked over the hologram, noting the all-prevalent indications for damage, several sections listed as completely destroyed, many of the sections powerless, but a bare handful of sections had power and were simply indicating that they required attention. After a moment of observing the hologram, the Wraithseer continued their conversation. * _As you can see, the damage is quite extensive, and we have few survivors. We lack the ability to seal off a significant section of the ship for the survivors, as well as lack the ability to produce what they need to survive, and what little we did carry in the way of supplies and such were reduced significantly by our crash._ *

One section pulsed, and a path was highlighted. * _I require you to investigate that section. That section is holding a few of the survivors, and is about to lose power. I have not had contact with the wraith forces in that section in some time, and the damage prevents further wraith forms from entering._ *

The hologram showed a second, shorter path, this time leading to the outer section. Arlas didn't need a briefing to understand what that was, the evacuation path. *( _How many survivors am I looking for?_ )*

The large wraithbone construct didn't answer immediately, but when it did, its mental tone was full of despair. * _Only four. Recently pods have been going offline, and those are the ones left according to a census we took after the crash._ *

It took Arlas a moment to get over his shock and fight off his own despair, but it took considerable effort. He knew these ships carried one hundred thousand eldar, or Asuryani as they called themselves, and while he had known the damage was extensive, he hadn't expected to lose nearly the entire troop complement on the ship. He took a deep, steadying breath, before nodding. *( _I will do what I can to get them out of their pods before they expire. Is that area pressurized?_ )*

The Wraithseer sent back a negative feeling, making Arlas send back an exasperated sigh, before the Wraithseer gestured to the door he had entered through. * _One of the Wraithlords will guide you as far as it can. After that, you will lead. Will the mon-keigh help, or should I have them dealt with?_ *

Arlas considered the question for a moment, before sending his reply. *( _They have been helpful so far, and even the ones that aren't have only been irritating. We don't exterminate them for being irritating. We leave that to our fallen kin. We exterminate them for being terminally stupid, ugly, and ignoring our guidance and obvious superiority._ )*

The Wraithseer sent back a feeling of being unamused at the Pathfinder's flippant attitude, before dismissing the hologram, opening the door Arlas had entered through, and resumed his previous position. Arlas quickly departed, and stepped into the hallway, before quickly debating the merits of his previous statement about exterminating mon-keigh.

"What took you?"

"Are we going to get decent fight today?"

"Are you alright?"

"What happened in there?"

Arlas wished the ship was pressurized, so he could take off his helmet and rub his forehead but instead settled for simply waiting. It took nearly two minutes before everyone finished babbling, by which point he was seriously considering just warping past the group. Finally able to speak his piece, he gestured to the only wraith form at the intersection, their guide. "We need to follow the Wraithlord. In exchange for not blasting the group, we need to extract four stasis pods from the ship, as power is failing in that section. Answers along the way."

He started down the hall toward the Wraithlord, ignoring the grumbling behind him from the krogan. "We haven't fired a shot yet. Eldar led missions are boring."

"Then I will endeavor to find you some Tyranids, Wrex. I am certain you would find that fight not boring."

"... What is a Tyranid?"

"Later, Wrex."

"Do we really need to do this routine again?"

Arlas rolled his eyes as the Wraithlord started toward the section in question. He followed their guide, ignoring the others behind him. Its gait was steady and consumed ground quickly, forcing Arlas to mentally ask it to slow down after a moment when it became clear that most of the mon-keigh couldn't keep up. "As to your questions, I had to convince the Wraithseer in charge of the ship that I was friendly. We are unlikely to get a decent fight, this is an eldar ship, and I convinced them that you are at least helpful. I am fine, and we need to rescue the last of the survivors in that section, all four of them, before power fails for their section. A Wraithseer is a Wraithlord that leads groups of wraith forms, is extremely powerful, and has several psyker abilities."

The path to the section was wandering, but after an hour of walking, they finally reached the part where they would part with the Wraithlord, and it was immediately obvious why. There was a fifty meter long hole in the middle of the hallway, and only a half meter wide path next to the wall to get past the ten meter wide void. The other side of the hallway was gone, the section of the ship missing for dozens of meters, ending against a cliff. Arlas frowned at the damage, before looking at the ledge. While most of the mon-keigh would get past fine, Wrex was going to be a problem.

Or so he thought, until Wrex simply used biotic charge to get across the gap, followed quickly by Lynx. Lioness glanced at the ledge and sniffed in disdain at it, before using her power to lift herself, and then Lynx gestured to bioticly pull her twin across the gap. Arlas rolled his eyes, before turning to Gemling and Dusk, and gesturing to the ledge as Ashley strolled across it without a problem, though she did have one hand up by some hanging pipes that had separated from the wall. "After you two."

Tali gave him a withering glare, before walking across the ledge, but when Dusk got to the edge, she made the mistake of looking down, seeing the several dozen meter plummet. The asari immediately backed up, and took several rapid, deep breaths, making little noises of distress. "Okay, looking down was a mistake."

Tali got across with no issues, used to having to contort and move around things to perform ship maintenance, so walking across an unmoving and reasonably wide, straight ledge was simple. Arlas turned back to Dusk, and gently touched her elbow. "Dusk, you have to get across, the wraith forms won't ignore you this time. The Twins can help you if you slip with their biotics."

She seemed to relax at the touch, and hesitantly approached the ledge, before shuddering. "You have that teleporter thing. Can't you just…?"

Arlas immediately shook his head. "No. The warp jump generator is not for use without extensive training so you don't claw your own eyes out. Through your helmet."

That got a stunned silence from Dusk, but after a moment, she looked at the chasm, and cautiously approached it. She made a point of not looking down the gaping hole in the floor, but her eyes did find the ledge, before she began examining the wall.

Arlas glanced at the others, before opening a private channel. "Twins, how do you want to do this?"

Jaclyn spoke, her voice a low drawl. "I dunno, but I think you are doing-"

Joannis cut her twin off before her could speak further. "We have a safety line. Can you jump over, get it and then jump back to tie it to her?"

Arlas jumped across, even as he responded. "No. I will carry it back across, however, so we do not sever the cord."

Just as he landed, Arlas glanced up, sensing something odd in the area, before swearing and yanking his fusion gun and pistol out. "Get her across, **NOW!** "

Everyone turned as he lunged past the group, pistol already up and firing, to see what had caused him suddenly act. Ashley had been half watching the hall ahead and spotted what he had a second ahead of the group, swearing up a storm as she yanked out her assault rifle, and tried to bring it up.

Three monstrosities were scrambling down the hallway toward them, four legs driving each form forward as a pair of claws frantically snapped at the group. A single tail arched gracefully up and over their long, narrow heads, its barbed spine slowly dripping venom onto the deck. Its head was covered in horns and a multitude of eyes, and a long, barbed sinuous tongue lashed the thin air. But most disgusting was that, under its thick scales, the creature clearly showed traits of reptiles, insects, and mammals. The one in front, for example, had at least six rows of deformed breasts, covered in scales, and one of its legs ended in a humanoid foot.

Arlas sprayed the approaching horrors with his pistol, and the others quickly joined in, the Twins putting the one in the back right into a stasis effect. They then turned and used lift and throw to knock the other Fiend of Slaanesh backwards, and everyone else firing their rifles at the remaining Fiend. But it was terrifyingly agile, effortlessly weaving, bobbing, ducking, and evading around their fire, swapping its body's orientation without pause in its stride, avoiding significant damage until it got within range of the group, and lunged.

Arlas brought up the fusion gun, and fired, vaporizing the leaping Fiend and a small section of the floor turned ceiling, as the Fiend that had been biotically thrown regained control of itself and resumed its charge. This time the group was more aware of its movement capabilities, a couple of the group firing to the sides of the creature, so even when it dodged it still took hits, but the creature was tough. It finally faltered and then dropped to the group just before it could try to perform its own leaping lunge. Arlas knew how tough such creatures were, however, and continued to spray the corpse with his pistol, until the stasis on the third creature wore off.

Ashley solved the problem as the creature hesitated for a fraction of an instant, noting the changes around it. She had swapped to her sniper rifle after the second fell, and her long rifle boomed once, causing the creature's head to detonate into a fine, delicate mist of blood, bone, and viscera. Done with the immediate problem, Arlas stepped back from the two closest corpses, and watched them slowly begin to combust into raw warp energies. "Stay back, those flames will burn you to your soul. Get Dusk across, now."

While he could tell the mon-keigh had some very pressing questions, he was in a rush now, there was no way those creatures could be summoned without some kind of sacrifice or ritual, and he knew of four possible victims. But first, he needed to alert Del to the situation. * _Del, three Fiends of Shi who Thirsts in the dead area. Is there no way to get reinforcements here? I don't care about damage to the ship, or if you have to cut your way through walls to do it._ *

He included a mental image of the three Fiends, and Del responded quickly. * _Daemons? Here? This can not be, I would have… I can get a single wraith form to you in time to be useful, but it will be a modest wait while it gets into position and cuts through the plating. Keep moving forward, see if the active pods still contain survivors._ *

Everyone paused, except for the Twins who were using biotics to pull Liara across the gap, when an undulating, keening howl ripped through the thin air. Ashley turned to Arlas. "What were those things?"

Arlas sighed, severing his conversation with Del. "Daemonic beasts of the Warp, called Fiends, for the Chaos faction back home. Basically the Warp's equivalent to mindless animals. Though I have little doubt there is something far, far worse in here. Otherwise the Fiends wouldn't be here."

Tali shuddered, her voice quavering despite her shotgun being kept steadily trained on the hallway heading deeper. "Why did one of them have… why did they look like that?"

Arlas looked at the group, before allowing himself to audibly sigh. "The less you know, the safer you are. No records from here on, and if your omnitools recorded images of those things, destroy them, now. Even images of them have power enough to corrupt."

Everyone gave him a flat stare, before Joannis nodded. "Alright, we will destroy any files on our omnitools at the end of the mission. Doing so now means we aren't rescuing your survivors as fast."

He stared at the human, having the oddest feeling he was missing something, before nodding his head. "Stay alert, and keep an eye on the ceiling, Fiends sometimes like to drop on their opponents. If you can modify your weapons to slow them down, that would help considerably."

Arlas waited for everyone to open their weapons and slot in what they called a cryo round mod, before he took point, keeping his fusion gun out, and had Wrex right behind him with his shotgun. The eldar let the rest of the mon-keigh pick their own marching order, and led the way into the corrupted section of the ship.

* * *

Arlas was getting more nervous as they continued deeper into the ship; they had been ambushed five more times by a total of twenty six Fiends over the last hour but he suspected they were getting close to where the four survivors were. That many Fiends didn't just appear on their own, and usually there were other daemons mixed with them like Daemonettes, to exploit the openings the lesser daemons made. He couldn't think of a good reason for them to be spread out like they were, and not supported by smarter daemons. Arlas was also concerned about the damage to the section, but despite the many blind passages and dead ends the various destroyed areas created, they were making relatively good time, considering he was relying on non-eldar to support his advance.

Arlas frowned, before gesturing for the group to halt. "Strong warp presence ahead, I suspect it is what is calling the lesser daemons we were fighting."

* _Del, where is that support you promised?_ *

* _Nearly there, it is almost a minute away. It will drop in as soon as it can. I can't bolster a wraith form in that area though, my senses don't reach into it, possibly a side effect of the daemons present, so be ready for the wraith form to suffer from wraith-sight._ *

Arlas grumbled about it taking its sweet time, as wraith forms would have made the fight against the Fiends exceedingly simple, but simply gestured for the group to resume moving forward. "Wraith form support will be arriving soon."

Two turns later, and Arlas stopped and swore, before lowering his weapon and entering the cleared section ahead. It looked like something had ripped out the walls to several rooms, creating a large area, but there was still rubble and debris scattered about the area. Several stasis pods and their rooms had been destroyed, creating several areas of good cover, and all four intact pods were easy to spot, or what he assumed were stasis pods. They appeared to be covered in pulsing, disgusting cocoons of flesh, covered in eyes, gaping orifices with misshapen teeth, and lashing tendrils. And standing in the middle was a familiar being almost twice as tall as the eldar.

The greater daemon looked at the entrance, and smirked, its wings slowly fanning the thin air as it waited, its narrow, bony face covered in scales, and its mouth full of sharp, pointy teeth. Its massive torso and limbs were covered in scales, and Arlas was disgusted to notice that it still hadn't bothered to find any sort of loin covering, making its 'gender,' such as it applied to something that could freely change shape, obscenely obvious. Its body was wreathed in warp fire, and it carried its hook ended and barbed blade as long as Arlas was tall in one hand effortlessly. * _Did you think I had forgotten about you, little eldar? The Mistress is going to be most unhappy that one of His toys tried to run. You are Her's, and I will not fail._ *

The greater daemon gave a dark chuckle, as it looked over his companions, and smirked in a most unpleasant fashion. * _And you even brought me new toys to play with. Heheheh. I am most pleased with your offering, and will kill you quickly for it._ *

Arlas rolled his eyes, and sent a thought back with mock shock. * _You! I remember you._ *

The greater daemon laughed, delighted at the way the encounter was playing out, and flourished its blade with a casual ease. * _And well you should, little eldar, for I am a Gate Keeper and Keeper of Secrets for Slaanesh, Shi who Thirsts. I am -_ *

Arlas couldn't help himself; he knew it was a bad idea, and that he was likely going to regret it. But he did it anyway. He pointed at the daemon, and mentally spoke over it. * _You're Giggles McLizardface!_ *

The clang of the greater daemon's blade falling out of its suddenly numb hand and hitting the deck seemed to reverberate throughout the entire ship, as the daemon's face flushed with all consuming rage, an impressive feat considering it was covered in scales, and made mental choking noises. For a shocked moment, no one moved, no one spoke, no one dared to breath, before suddenly his omnitool communication line exploded into laughter as the rest of the group lost control. He turned and gave them a thumbs up gesture, before drawing his sword with his main hand, keeping his fusion gun in his off hand. After a moment of gaping like a fish, the daemon finally got its raging fury back under control enough to speak, and snapped up its sword from where it had fallen. * _My name is Halrshan-Ishnetrue, you little cunt, and you will address me properly. I also take back my offer of a quick death. Now I am going to rip your arms off and make you my bitch toy and then rape you to death and then rape your corpse_ _ **until it falls apart, while you watch in that cursed soul gem, before breaking the gem and raping your spirit for the rest of eternity! DIE!**_ *

Arlas was already moving as the greater daemon charged him, getting away from the group so they could live long enough to get to cover. The others scattered, and he waited for the daemon to get close enough before firing the fusion gun. The powerful burst of plasma seared its scales, turning flesh and scales to blackened charcoal, but the enraged daemon didn't even notice the burns, closing the distant terrifyingly quickly, and lashed out with its blade. Arlas ducked under the first blow, and flipped over the backhand swing, his own blade scoring a light cut along the stomach muscles that began bleeding sluggishly, the blood igniting as it dripped and hit the floor. * _First blood is mine!_ *

The daemon's only reply was an inarticulate howl of utter rage, before gathered a sphere of warp energy the size of Arlas' chest in one hand, and flung it. Arlas desperately dove into the immaterium with his jump generator, and swore at the sudden, unexpected currents in it. The daemon had done something to agitate this universe's plane of immaterium, making chain jumps exceedingly difficult and dangerous. The daemon had set up the battlefield well. He swapped his fusion gun out for his twin pistol, idly noting the section of plating where he had been had been obliterated by the warp strike, and the daemon was charging him, ignoring the fire from the rest of the group tearing into its back.

Arlas swore and quickly put the pistol back away, realizing that he was going to need to focus on bladework to survive this until the wraith form arrived. He recognized the attack pattern as the same one as before, and ducked under the first swipe of the massive blade, and then cut a line across its inner thigh, missing its groin as it suddenly pivoted and tried to crush him with a cloven hoof. He rolled out of the way, and noted the daemon was slowing down as more and cryo rounds pierced its back, but rage was keeping Giggles from noticing it. A few more seconds and the daemon would be slow enough for him to simply behead it or one of the monkeigh to blow its head apart.

Then one of the biotics went and hit it with a lift.

Giggles suddenly staggered as it unexpectedly became much lighter, causing it to overcompensate, before the confusion made its fury subside, just enough to start thinking again as it looked down at itself. Finally taking note of the frost forming on it and how sluggish it had become, the daemon turned to the others in the group, idly parrying a slash from Arlas before forcing him to retreat with a quick jab from its blade. It looked down as the others fired a volley into its chest, idly watching the frost form over its scales, before nodding, its voice a menacing whisper. * _I know what you were trying to do, little eldar. And it might even have worked if your allies hadn't been so stupid._ *

Arlas cursed as the daemon brought its rage under control, and reactivated its aura of warp fire, instantly defrosting itself, before it suddenly blurred and vanished. Arlas swore even harder as he threw himself forward into a combat roll, expecting the daemon to reappear behind him, but the daemon had reappeared near one of the flesh cocooned pods, its blade hanging over the pod. * _Dark Prince, grant me thy boon!_ *

Its blade flashed down, despite desperate fire from the others and Arlas trying to close, unable to use his warp jump with the currents in the immaterium until the generator had cooled, but he was on the other side of the room. The blade hit the pod and cut it in half, instantly killing the eldar inside it, and no doubt destroying the spirit stone at the same time. Arlas watched the wounds on the greater daemon heal, and six warp fires suddenly burst into existence around the destroyed pod, which quickly subsided to reveal six Fiends of Slaanesh. Halrshan pointed with its blade at the others he had come in with. * _Deal with those six, the eldar is mine._ *

Arlas swore, and moved to try and intercept at least one of the Fiends, the beasts would obey that order at all costs, but Halrshan flared into existence in front of him after a flash of warp fire, forcing the eldar to skid to a halt to avoid having his legs cut off at the knees. He was too focused on his opponent to see much of what was going on across the room, but he could hear the calls on the omnitool, and it didn't sound good. It only got worse when the greater daemon suddenly sucker punched him, knocking Arlas off balance and dazing him enough to let the daemon kick him with all the force it could muster.

Arlas tumbled across the room to slam into one of the broken stasis pods, the armor's psy-shield not activating, and hit the pod hard enough to feel several bones cracking at least. Arlas weakly looked around, idly wondering why he was having trouble breathing as he struggled to locate his sword, but stopped as he tried to move and reflexively uttered a watery scream of pain. He looked down, and cursed as he saw he had been kicked into a broken piece of wraithbone, and it had gone right through his side, spearing his lung before coming out his chest. He grabbed the wraithbone, and tried to lever himself up and off it, but suddenly found his strength fleeing him and was unable to do anything but roughly pant, trying to not use the pierced part of his lung so he wouldn't make the wound worse.

He ignored the openly gloating daemon, turning his head to the others to see how their fight was going, and winced. Three of the Fiends had been killed, but the other three had gotten into melee with the group. Wrex and Jaclyn had taken on two of them with their shotguns, with Tali and Joannis helping them respectively, but the third had slipped around Ashley to drag Liara out of cover before it could be put down. The asari barely had time to shriek in terror before the creature grabbed her arms to hold them still and shoved its tongue through her mass effect mask, licking her from jaw to forehead before shoving the long muscle into her mouth. Liara convulsed and then went limp, the daemon's saliva causing her to slip immediately into a coma. The creature began tearing at her armor so it could feed on her flesh, keeping Dusk between it and Ashley, but Wrex finally finished off his Fiend with Tali's help, and both turned to shotgun the creature off the asari before it could do more than maul the armor.

As the last Fiend died, the greater daemon started applauding, thinking itself fully in control of the situation despite being outnumbered. It deliberately stomped on Arlas' long rifle and then his sword, the eldar's tumble across the room having torn the weapons from him, crushing them into uselessness with contemptuous ease. * _Bravo mortals, bravo. Truly a remarkable display, especially since you probably have not fought such creatures before. Since you did so well, I will make you an offer. Submit, and swear eternal servitude to Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, Prince of Excess, Dark Lord, and She Who Thirsts, and you will get power the likes of which you can not possibly imagine. Don't, and I will do whatever I please to you._ *

Arlas shoved the pain from his mind, and felt something in the hall above them. He quickly reached out to what he felt, and smirked despite the pain before mentally taunting back. * _Better idea. You die, we go home._ *

Arlas had the satisfaction of watching the daemon sigh in utter annoyance, before turning back to him and stomping toward him, drawing its blade. * _Apparently you need another lesson in pain, eldar. Most of your kind aren't this stupid._ *

Arlas sent a private thought, and smirked despite the pain he was in. * _Actually, I am going to just sit here. Spike in the chest after all. But my big friend wants a word with you._ *

Halrshan actually stopped advancing and started giggling, before turning to look back at the krogan. * _Hahahah._ _What, that little lizard? Heheheh. What is he going to do, punch me in the knee? Bahahaha!_ *

A sword tip suddenly punched through the ceiling and began transcribing a large circle, and Arlas sent his vicious glee. * _No, not that big friend._ *

The ceiling circle finally completed and dropped, crashing to the ground in the center of the open area, and a towering, seven meter form loomed over the greater daemon, who suddenly wasn't feeling quite so tall, especially when the Wraithlord leveled its sword at it. * _THAT big friend. You know, it just occurred to me, but I could have sworn you used to be bigger. … Aren't you a little short to be a greater daemon?_ *

Halrshan turned back to him, and gave him a death glare that should have set off a nuclear fireball, while someone choked back laughter on the squad channel. *… _I am going to take FAR too much pleasure in breaking you latter._ *

Arlas smirked and leaned back against the pod, trying to get comfortable, as Ashley clandestinely pulled the unconscious Liara behind one of the destroyed pods. * _Yeah, good luck with that._ *

The Wraithlord fired its shoulder mounted starcannon, but the greater daemon displaced itself, reappearing near one of the pods, and quickly brought down the sword as it screamed a supplication. * _Prince of Excess, grant me thy boon!_ *

As the pod split and the fires of the Warp flared around the minion of Chaos, the Wraithlord turned to the greater daemon. As the fires began to fade, the daemon flared its wings and stretched, revealing that this time, the boon had been a significant increase in size, and likely strength, as it stood over eight meters tall, double its previous height. * _Ah, much better._ *

Halrshan turned and pointed at the Twins and Wrex, before snarling a command. * _Despair!_ *

All three of the squad dropped to their knees, Wrex having the presence of mind to roll behind a nearby destroyed pod when the daemon started to turn to them, as they began wrestling with the psychically induced despair. The Wraithlord rushed the daemon, but it managed to point at the area where Ashley was, and shout another command. * _Apathy._ *

She was behind cover, so Arlas couldn't tell if she was affected, but couldn't do anything even if she was, and he had lost track of Tali while keeping the daemon busy. He focused on trying to keep the pain from his wound from overwhelming him, and watching the fight. And it was obvious to Arlas this fight was going to be a bit closer than he would have liked, since the Wraithlord would suddenly pause, it's flowing movements hesitating as if it had lost track of the opponent in front of it. Warp blade met wraithblade, sparks and energy discharges giving the fight a slightly surreal edge to it, but after a moment it became clear to Arlas the fight wasn't going to be close, the daemon had the edge, so to speak.

He cursed to himself as he glanced at the two weapons he had left, the pistol lacked the damage to help, and the fusion gun lacked the range. If he pulled himself off the spike in his chest, he would likely bleed to death before the others could help. He started going down everything he had on him, trying to find a solution.

Block of wraith webbing. Useful, but he couldn't throw it accurately enough, and the blast would also damage the Wraithlord if he used the webbing as a general explosive. The wound was too big for the webbing to be used as a cauterizer as well, and went through his torso.

Grenades. Same problem as the webbing block, with the added problem of the ones he had on him were meant to blind senses and sensors or deflect attacks, not damage daemons.

Melta bombs. Same problem as the ones with webbing, the explosion would take a bigger chunk out of the Wraithlord than the daemon as it was at least somewhat resistant to heat. That and the bombs were meant to be affixed to a tank or wall, not thrown. Khaine himself couldn't guess where a thrown melta bomb would end up. How the mon-keigh back home managed to do it was something that had always baffled him.

The grappling assembly didn't have a strong enough line to try and throw off the daemon's attacks, the force would pull him off the spike if he tried. Also, the daemon was facing toward him, so he didn't have a good angle anyways to apply pressure.

Pouch of runes. Healing runes would take too long to be useful, scrying runes were a bit late, empowerment runes didn't work on a wraith form, spider runes only worked on structures and didn't affect daemons, deception runes wouldn't help kill the daemon, and…

He paused, before trying to grab the pouch. That last rune might let him assist the fight a bit. It took him two tries to get a hold of the pouch, and begin digging around for the rune he wanted.

"You look like crap Arlas. I mean, museum escapee."

His head snapped around, and he cursed himself for not paying attention, but it was Tali, kneeling beside him. "Not sure if medigel can fix all that, but it will help keep you alive."

He simply nodded, relaxing a bit as the cool, numbing gel washed the edge off the pain, but he kept digging through the pouch. * _How is everyone else?_ *

"Pissed and trying to figure out how to help without distracting the Wraithlord. The Twins and Wrex are wanting words with you later."

He grumbled something unpleasant before finally finding the rune of guidance he was looking for, and pulling it out. * _They can get in line after the Wraithseer and the healer. Tell the others to keep that damn daemon from distracting me for a moment. If this works, the Wraithlord will move so you all can resume shooting the big bastard._ *

His left hand reached around, and pulled the fusion gun off his back. He mentally deactivated the biolock on it, before offering it to Tali. * _You get by the remaining pods. If the daemon tries to sacrifice another of my people, blast him with this. Don't try before that._ *

Arlas could see the weapon casing was cracked near the power pack, and there was a chance it would detonate in her hands, but they were fast running out of options. Tali looked at the weapon, before hesitating. "What about the biolock?"

* _Disabled for the moment. If I start glowing, move to the pods. If not, stay here and get ready to blast the bastard. Use it just like your shotgun, but you probably only have one shot with it. So try to not miss._ *

She took the fusion gun with all the eagerness most people would display being handed a live grenade missing its pin, which was remarkably astute considering the damage to the weapon. Once she was holding the weapon, he dismissed her from his mind, as well as the pain, the noises from the fight as a pair of handguns, an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle joined the clash of swords, and focused only on the guidance rune in his hand and the Wraithlord. He tried to remember how his teacher had told him to setup the connection between the warlock, rune, and target.

The first step was to get in cover, so your dumb ass wouldn't get shot. The second was to dismiss everything else from your mind. The third was to realize that, thanks to the warp, everything was connected. The fourth was to build and reinforce a psychic bridge between the mind of the warlock and the target. The fifth step was to sit back and watch the guided target start taking everything to pieces.

Arlas glanced down at the spike of wraithbone sticking out of his chest, before dismissing everything but his target and the rune in his hand from his senses. It might have been the blood loss, but he finally found it possible to do, where before he would spend minutes trying to dismiss everything and struggle to not have random things pop back into his awareness. Finally focused, he began psychically building a mental bridge between himself and the Wraithlord, using the rune as a focus. And he was surprised at how easy it was, his mind expanding through the unused portions of the wraith form, and his own senses being used to amplify the Wraithlord's, negating the sense of disassociation from the world the wraith forms suffered from. And then his awareness suddenly flowed into the Wraithlord's, and he lost track of his own body, as he suddenly realized he might have forgotten a step in the linking process.

* _Ah, right… the anchoring. I forgot… to… …_ *

* * *

Joannis was not amused by how FUBAR this mission had gone, and she was N7, used to FUBAR, hell FUBAR was the normal for her. This might be a new level of FUBAR, requiring a new acronym to describe it. This was so FUBAR that the FUBAR had FUBARed the FUBAR, and the phrase FUBAR had lost all meaning, and that was pretty damned FUBAR.

Even Wrex wasn't enjoying the fight, that was how messed up it was. Everyone just wanted the fight to end, but the last enemy, a god forsaken demon of all things, with hooves, horns, wings and a fire and torture fetish, refused to just die. She was already dreading the report she was going to have to file, but at least she could use her visor camera to prove she hadn't gone totally insane with the report. They couldn't use their omnitool recordings, Arlas' implied threat had ensured that and she wanted to talk with him later about why he was worried about a mere recording of the beasts, but he had said nothing about the helmet cameras.

She wasn't sure what had happened to Liara, but Ashley had reported that despite the state of her armor, Liara was still alive, they just couldn't revive her. Tali had gone to check Arlas, and the four remaining fighters were trying to snipe into melee, without exposing themselves to more of whatever the daemon had hit them with earlier. She wasn't sure why a single word had utterly crushed her spirits earlier, but now she was too angry to care now and it was another question for Arlas. The eldar was currently putting out quite the psyker light show, but she couldn't tell what he was doing.

She dropped back into cover to let her Locust SMG cool down, before glancing around at the squad. Ashley was firing her sniper rifle with cautious precision, Wrex was blazing away with his assault rifle, and her twin was arcing biotic warps around the Wraithlord while occasionally firing a couple rounds from her Hurricane SMG. Joannis shook her head, and stood back up to begin firing again, but paused to watch the seven meter tall eldar mech suddenly and unexpectedly sidestep a powerful overhead swing from the daemon, before suddenly lashing out with a kick to the daemon's knee.

She frowned, wondering why the mech was suddenly moving so fluidly and only now using those moves when before its movements had been slow and hesitant, as the daemon's kneecap shattered loud enough for the group to hear across the room. The daemon screamed in anger more than pain, before trying to grab its opponent with its free hand covered in purple flames, only for the Wraithlord to swipe its sword, forcing the daemon to jump back to avoid losing its hand. The Wraithlord then stepped to the side and back, giving the group a clear shot at the daemon even as its shoulder mounted weapon fired, and everyone joined in on lighting the daemon up.

Ashley's sniper rifle fired three shots in rapid succession before overheating, and she quickly switched to her assault rifle, already out and deployed right beside her. Wrex kept firing his assault rifle, while Jaclyn hosed the daemon down with her Hurricane, and flung biotic warps as fast as she could. She quickly joined her twin in doing the same with her SMG.

The daemon cried out in pain as the rounds tore through its chest, and then Ashley fired her sniper rifle again, blowing a head sized hole out of its chest thanks to the biotic warps reducing its ability to resist damage, exposing bones and organs. The daemon shrieked in agony, but clearly wasn't dead yet, as it vanished to reappear next to the third pod, sword already raised and held in both hands, point down to stab into the flesh covered mound. * _Prince of Pleasure, grant me thy-_ *

Tali suddenly stood up from behind the pod, the melty gun pointing at the daemon's chest. "How about no?"

The daemon gaped at Tali in horrified shock, before desperately throwing itself backwards and trying to twist away but Tali didn't give it a chance, firing the fusion gun. Joannis didn't wait for the blast to clear, and hit the daemon with a biotic stasis as she yelled orders. "Jaclyn, get a barrier on that pod. Tali, pull back and get ready to fire that thing again. Wrex, charge as soon as the stasis goes down and my follow up warp hits. Ashley, pop that asshole's head like a rotten fruit."

The heat had cleared enough to show the daemon in stasis, but the Twins knew it was going to collapse and soon, the creature was simply too powerful and big to be held long. But Tali's surprise attack had done the most damage to the thing yet, completely blowing its right arm off, and the sword in its left hand was glowing an eye searing bluish-white from trying to block the blast of plasma. Everyone got into position, though Joannis was surprised to see that Tali had swapped the melty gun for her shotgun.

Jaclyn put the barrier on the pod, and Joannis tossed a warp, before dismissing the stasis field. The daemon screamed in agony as the warp hit the gaping hole in its chest as it came back to reality. Then Wrex charged the daemon, detonating the unstable warp field, and blasting the krogan and demon away from each other. Jaclyn's barrier protected her, Tali, and the pod. Ashley's sniper round and Tali's carnage round both missed as the daemon fell, but the daemon hit the ground howling and thrashing in mortal agony.

Then the eldar Wraithlord slammed its foot into the daemon's chest, and shoved the sword straight through its heart. The daemon just gasped in pain this time, before vomiting blood that immediately caught fire, slowly spilling out to coat the ground. The Wraithlord very slowly, and very deliberately took the hilt of the massive blade in both hands, and began to evenly twist the blade, opening the wound. The daemon choked, before taking the final opportunity to send its defiance. * _You win this one, little eldar. But we both know that I will never stop hunting you… and that you have no way to truly kill me._ *

It gave the Wraithlord a grim smile, unable to turn its head toward where Arlas limply leaned against a destroyed pod. * _If you somehow survive this, I look forward to the next fight. I think you and I… might be destined… to do this… for a..._ _ **very**_ _..._ _ **LONG**_ … _time… little eldar._ *

The Wraithlord suddenly twisted the blade completely around, before ripping the sword out of the daemon's chest, and spinning it in a quick circle to behead the daemon, the flaming blood coating the blade adding emphasis to the flourishing movement. Done executing the daemon, the Wraithlord turned and trod over to the first intact stasis pod, and bathed the pod in a short burst of fire from the barrel under its fist to begin burning the cocoon off, before moving to the second pod to repeat the action. It paid the disintegrating daemon's body behind it no mind.

Joannis looked over the group, before heading to Arlas. "Jaclyn, help Ashley with Liara. Tali with me, we need to check Arlas. Wrex, overwatch, make sure we aren't ambushed."

As she headed over to the eldar, she opened a private channel with Tali as she drew even with her. "I want to know how you bypassed that biolock he has always been going on about."

Tali shrugged as she replied. "He disabled it for me."

Joannis swore as the Wraithlord beat them over to the eldar pathfinder, and gently touched him, causing his body to gently sway before the Wraithlord slid its blade behind him, and jerked it upwards. Arlas hit the floor limply and then fell over. "Dammit, I think Arlas is dead."

Tali jogged ahead, but before they could do anything, Arlas jerked, and shook his head. * _... Set… an… anchor… Serves me right for forgetting something that basic._ *

* * *

Arlas waited for his senses to start working after getting back to his body, and naturally his hearing returned first. "Arlas, if you aren't dead you are going to wish you were for scaring us like that."

Arlas simply sent back his irritation and pain, before carefully beginning to try and lever himself up. Lying on his side was causing the blood in the damaged section of lung to ooze into the next one, making it ever harder to breathe. After a moment, someone helped him sit up, and he sent them a private thought of thanks for the help. He felt weaker than since he had woken up in the holding pens for that dark eldar succubus, missing half his forearm and having been beaten senseless to be captured. After a moment to try and get his breath back, he forced himself to his feet. * _How bad? I couldn't sense much while merged with the Wraithlord._ *

"Liara is still unconscious, but two pods survived. No idea how we are going to move those pods though. Especially without them losing power."

* _They have a built in power source, but it won't last forever, a couple hours at most. Local power will last a bit longer, and I can merge the pods to the lander. First, though, get me to the exit. I can wait in the lander, the Wraithlord will help you move things, and I can get the lander's Wraithguard to help._ *

His sight finally came back enough that things came into enough focus for him to work, and the first thing he noticed concerned him. * _Tali, is my fusion gun glowing?_ *

She looked down before replying. "Is that supposed to happen?"

* _Give, now._ *

She passed him the gun, which was softly glowing near the power pack, and Arlas quickly discovered it was almost too heavy for him. He grunted, but managed to eject the power pack, which was glowing a bright yellow as it hit the ground and deformed slightly. * _Get it away before it explodes!_ *

He was having to support himself by leaning against the destroyed pod, but Joannis and Tali were smart enough to figure out what needed to happen. Tali gave the pack a firm kick, while Joannis biotically lifted it, causing the pack to sail into the far wall. It hit with a rather pathetic plink, before it suddenly exploded like a plasma grenade. Done with that excitement, he painfully put the fusion gun on his back, before slowly pushing himself to his feet and limping toward the exit of the ship, half a kilometer distant. After a moment, Tali caught up and tried to help support him, but after a moment he projected his pained and exhausted amusement at her. * _Too short to help. Thanks for trying though._ *

Tali glared up at him, before wrapping one arm around his waist anyways, though she didn't try to put his arm over her shoulder again. A few minutes later Ashley caught up carrying Liara over one shoulder, and he sent his amusement to the human, before broadcasting to the group. * _Isn't that the pose that got that stupid prank about me going?_ *

Ashley stared blankly at him for a moment, before laughing. "You're right, it is. Should I let you carry her then, and Tali try and support me? Or maybe you would like to carry both like that? I think Tali might enjoy it."

He sent back his exhausted annoyance as Tali stiffened and made a soft noise that he couldn't identify, before giving the human an immolating glare. * _Only if you tell me what a monkey is._ *

He didn't bother waiting for her reply before he contacted Yol'Pvera, and let her and Kap'Eiyl know what happened, requested they move the ship to the exit tunnel, and get ready to accept two stasis pods for integration into the ship. Once he got back, he would move one of them into the Wraithguard to help move the pods. After the Wraithguard left, he would get out of his armor and used the healing rune to keep himself conscious until they got back, before helping fuse the stasis pods into the lander.

He finished issuing orders, before coming back his surroundings. He sighed to himself as he saw how much was ahead. It was going to be a long walk, for only being a half kilometer long, and he could feel himself starting to grey out. Arlas fumbled for his rune pouch, searching for the healing rune, trying to find the one he needed before he passed out. As his vision continued to dim and constrict, he put all his focus to keep walking, despite the slowly growing effort required. * _I guess that gut wound… was worse… than I… thought._ *

He managed to keep himself conscious long enough to get back to the ship, where he managed to get Kap'Eiyl into the wraithguard and drop most of his equipment in the armory. He then staggered over to one of the seats in the hangar bay, and passed out as he landed heavily in it, not even being able to activate the seat's gravity tethers.

 _A/N - At almost 16k words, that is the longest single mission yet for the story, not counting the lead up parts for each one, and we haven't even hit most of the canonical major ones yet. Other than Therum and Eden Prime, of course. But with this, most of Arlas' personal missions are finished, and we can get back to our regularly scheduled faffing about. Though I promise not for long._

 _Anyhoo, hope everyone enjoyed, but if not, drop me a line and let me know what to improve. Or if you think I should just stop writing. :P_

 _Also, some of you might have noticed that I have changed my upload schedule to every other week. This is due to me losing my previous job, which had several hours of nothing to do but write. Now that I am job hunting, I no longer have five easy hours a day to write. So until I get a new job and get my writing groove back, I will be posting as indicated in the story description._


	20. Recovery and Rewards

**Chapter 19 - Recovery and Rewards**

 _A/N - Alright time for Arlas to learn the meaning of friendship, trust, understanding, and camaraderie with the people you fight besides. Even if he would rather fling half of them out an airlock. And the other half out the hangar. And anyone he missed on the first sweep goes out through the hull. Except Wrex. And Tali, maybe Liara too. Oh, and the Twins, they take care of and direct the ship. And… There is probably something wrong with me, I get WAY too much enjoyment out of Arlas' misery._

 _Also, a couple milestones for the story, 51k+ views, 33_ _0+ follows, 215+ favs, and 135+ reviews. Thanks everyone for reading this mental exercise, and even more so for enjoying it. Also, the next chapter will be when the current poll closes, but I will not be posting the results. Mostly because spoilers. Once that one is down, I will post the next poll, which will be based on things that happened in this chapter._

' _Whoz dat? Whyz youz giving me ordez?' - Orb meganob, Dawn of War_

Arlas woke up with a flinch due to the painfully bright light over his head, and sighed at the feeling of having done this before.

"If you don't want to wake up in the medical bay, Pathfinder, may I suggest dodging next time?"

He didn't reply, simply reaching up to bat the light away from his eyes. Once his vision had returned, he did a quick check to ensure everything was still attached, before rolling off of the bed. "How long?"

"About two days, you respond remarkably well to the cloned tissue and surgery techniques, though your broken bones are likely to take longer. All and all, you are doing remarkably well for someone that came into my bay with a three centimeter hole in his chest plugged with rubble.

"The Commanders want a debrief with you, but before that, do you have any idea what is wrong with Liara? She was brought in unconscious from the mission, but I can find nothing wrong with her. And the Commanders said that you knew something about her condition."

He stared at the older human, before glancing at the bed where Liara lay. He suddenly understood why his own rest had been uneasy, as she was still trapped in the coma from the Fiends, and had sensed her warp induced nightmares. "Did they not tell you what I told them? For her, induce vomiting to cleanse the internal corruption, and then clean her face, neck, and shoulders. If you get all the contaminates off her, she will awaken on her own. Though she will likely need true rest first, not the induced nightmares of the coma."

Doctor Chakwas frowned, before shaking her head and tapping something on her omnitool. "Why would that help?"

"The creatures we fought administer a poison through their saliva, rendering their prey as you see. They can then take their time feeding on the emanations from the prey, fear and pain mostly, while slowly dissecting and devouring them."

The human doctor turned and stared at him, before incredulously asking, "Are you trying to tell me whatever attacked you and the others were… emotion eaters?"

Arlas briefly debated trying to teach her the eldar word for what those creatures were, before deciding it wouldn't be necessary. "Yes."

"... And you expect me to believe that?"

He gave the doctor a brief smile. "Healer, am I the one that knows more about these creatures than any other on this vessel?"

The older human blinked, before nodding her head, and Arlas continued. "So when I say the cure is to induce vomiting and then clean the areas affected, then that is the answer. The other way is to wait for the poisons to naturally degrade, which will likely take a week."

He was saved from further debate with the healer as Jaclyn entered the medical bay. "Doctor, here to pick up our eldar. Is he free to go?"

The older female frowned, before shaking her head slightly. "For missions, no, those broken rib bones need to heal, though he is the most knowledgeable in how long it will take for that to heal. To leave the medical bay, yes. We were just discussing how his people deal with whatever is wrong with Liara. I will be attempting it as soon as I finish getting my things ready."

Jaclyn nodded, before turning to Arlas. "We need to debrief you. Would you rather meet in the communication room or the Captain's Cabin? You will be the only one being debriefed."

He considered it for a moment, before sending his decision. * _Captain's Cabin. Things we should discuss about it out of sight and hearing of the others._ *

Jaclyn nodded. "Alright, meet us there in ten minutes. Give you time to get everything squared away and something to wear."

Arlas nodded and grabbed his chest plate off the shelving above the bed he had been on, idly noting the two holes in it, the entry hole in the side and the exit in the front, before shaking his head and leaving. He ignored the stares from the female humans as he stalked to the elevator, his bodysuit clad form apparently something they couldn't stop watching. A short ride down, and then he was entering the transport, pausing long enough to grab the rest of his scattered armor, and carry the pieces to their stand in the armory. He put them on the armory table, before checking the two stasis pods that had been put in the corner of the room. * _Yol'Pvera, how are the two in the pods?_ *

He glanced over and then headed to the Wraithguard, removing Kap'Eiyl from the walker, and attaching him to the console in the bridge of the lander, while Yol'Pvera replied. * _Both pod's occupants are in acceptable condition. The first is doing fine though I am concerned about her physical condition after being in the pod for nearly three millennia. The other occupant, however, I can not comment on without it being, at best, an educated guess._ *

He sent a feeling of confusion and curiosity, as he entered his room, and pulled on his warlock tabard. * _Why not? Are they not eldar?_ *

* _Their vitals and mental emanations are stable, as near as I can tell, but they are a Gyrinx. You know how they react to their bond partner dying._ *

He paused, before rubbing his forehead. * _Khaine dammit it all. Don't shut off the Gyrinx's pod, but begin waking the other one. Do a normal waking, two weeks will give me enough time to think of a plan and start it. Maybe we can rebond the Gyrinx to one of us._ *

Kap'Eiyl joined the conversation. * _It is likely bonded to her. The two pods were in the same room. Or what was left of one. I can't think of another reason for two pods in a single room. Even bonded couples got their own separate rooms._ *

Arlas paused, and glanced about the armory, noticing several new stands along one side, making the room even more crowded than from just the two pods. After a second, he nodded. * _Alright, start waking both, but keep the Gyrinx's pod behind the other one by a couple days. If we are wrong, we will have to figure out how to deal with the distraught psyker then._ *

Arlas would catalogue everything they had recovered from the destroyed section of the _Guided Wrath_ after the debriefing, and after he did some healing. First, though, he had the debriefing, and he was probably going to be late for that.

A few minutes later, he stepped into the office, and nodded to the Twins seated behind the desk. He strode forward and took a seat, preemptively answering the searing glare from the Lynx and the confused one from the Lioness. "There was a chair. Therefore, I sat. If I was not meant to sit, there would be no chair."

He concluded Anderson had not told them specifics about his debriefing of Arlas about Eden Prime, as both simply gave a shrug. A minute later, Lioness finished whatever she was doing, and closed the glowing orange computer in front of her. "Right, that report is done. Jaclyn will finish hers, and add anything she thinks we need to discuss about the last mission. First, and most importantly, what was that fight at the last part of the ship?"

Arlas wasted a couple seconds wrestling with his naturally sarcastic reply, before answering seriously. "Minor daemonic infestation of a section of an eldar troop ship."

Jaclyn looked up from her computer, and gave him an incredulous stare. "That was minor?"

"Correct. Moderate would have been open war between the wraith forms and the daemons holding a small section of the ship, significant would have been us trying to remove the few survivors and pieces of equipment before destroying the site in whatever fashion was required, and a critical infestation would have resulted in my suggestion of immediate and repeated nuclear cleansing of the site from orbit. Daemons are a significant threat even in small numbers, you simply had the good fortune to fight them in a long, open hall when they lacked the intelligence to plan ambushes and you had an experienced advisor in the group."

Jaclyn opened and closed her mouth a few times, as Joannis dove to save her twin. "Then it is a good thing we don't carry nuclear weapons on board. Next-"

Arlas turned to stare at Joannis, before he cut her off with a single disbelieving word. " **What?** "

Both Twins paused, confused at his question, and after a moment of silence from both humans he continued. "Humans not using nuclear weapons is like black holes that don't have massive gravity wells. If they aren't nuclear, what are those missiles on the weapons deck?"

Joannis replied. "Javelin mark two missiles. They deliver warp fields that rip ships in half. No one uses nukes anymore, the Council would come down on whoever did like the wrath of an elder god. Besides, missiles are slow, unwieldy, and have to be used at close range. Outside of being right beside your target, they are practically useless."

Arlas stared at her like she had grown a second head, before reaching out to Yol'Pvera. * _Yol, take a note, humans think missiles are useless, and don't use nukes in standard combat. The Craftworld Fleets will need to adjust their tactics accordingly to take advantage of that oversight._ *

Yol'Pvera and Kap'Eiyl both sent back their surprise at his announcement, before Yol'Pvera sent her agreement, and Arlas returned to his surroundings as Jaclyn spoke. "Next question, who is this Slaanesh, among many other titles, that the demon held in such respect?"

He stared at her for several minutes, completely still, deliberately attempting to make them uncomfortable. "A daemon god. More I will not say, other than that you would do very well to forget that name, and never mention it again to anyone. My people have had bad encounters with followers of that creature and similar ones, and will assume anyone that knows their name is a follower of one."

The twins shared a look, before nodding. "Alright, I assume that was the reason you wanted all the omnitool recordings destroyed."

He blinked, before cursing himself in his head. "If omnitool recordings were all there were, then yes. I meant all recordings, and know you two are smart enough to figure that out. So if you found a way around it, fix it, if you can. If not…"

He paused, before standing up. "Then I will follow all your future orders to the letter. Good day, Commanders."

Joannis spoke before he could leave. "One more question. Well, two actually. How common are demons, and are cryo rounds the best way to fight them?"

He paused at the door. "It is daemons, not demons. Demons are something else entirely, and infinitely better than demons. And they live in the immaterium, and why it is so dangerous. They don't normally appear in the materium. And yes, cryo rounds would be best, though avoid using biotics on larger forms if they are enraged. You made that fight far more difficult than it needed to be."

He stepped out of the cabin, pausing long enough in the mess hall, whose name still confused him as the humans kept it almost obsessively clean, to get several servings of food before making his way back to the lander. He had much to do, and needed it done as quickly as possible. First was starting his healing, then repairing the two large holes in his armor and undersuit, fix the damage to the fusion gun, and then he could catalogue everything from the _Guided Wrath_.

* * *

Jaclyn Shepard stood in the communication room, waiting for the call to go through. She had swept the room for bugs, and activated every privacy, anti-tapping, and security program and trick she had. The eldar had just returned to his ship, so now was the best time to send in the report. Even Joannis didn't know what she had, which would make it easier to hide it from the eldar. It had been sheer dumb luck that had given her what she was waiting on.

The daemon's hoof had crushed the long rifle, destroying the grip, rifle butt, and rear of the eldar's main weapon, but the forward part had been intact. And after the battle, she had been sweeping the room for useable equipment, and spotted it, half hidden under a piece of rubble the daemon had kicked over it. A quick scan had revealed that all the defenses were off, and she had gotten a very good, detailed scan of the front half. Not of the power source, sadly, but that was likely why her omnitool had managed to get a decent scan for once, before she had used some scrap to push the rifle into a bag to return it. For someone that acted so arrogantly knowledgeable, Arlas was remarkably easy to work around sometimes. It made putting one over him so much more satisfying.

She shook her head slightly as the communication line finally connected, the Quantum Entanglement Communicator finally connecting with its twin in Admiral Hackett's office. She punched in a code, sending the security protocol needed to open the channel, and after a moment Admiral Hackett's body appeared. "Priority two, full security engaged. Jaclyn Shepard, this is a surprise."

Jaclyn saluted the Admiral, which he returned with a small flicker of amusement. "At ease, Commander. I doubt this is a social call."

"Correct sir. Is your office secure?"

Admiral Hackett blinked, before pushing a few buttons out of the QEC's view, before nodding. "It is now. What is this about, Commander?"

She allowed herself a tiny smirk, before tapping her omnitool. "During our last mission, we entered a crashed eldar ship on the third planet in the Plutus system of the Hades Gamma cluster. Most of the interior was trashed, but we encountered a pair of lifeforms that Arlas called daemons. He ordered the destruction of all records of them, muttering something about corruption. Sadly, we haven't had time to figure out what he was talking about, but I am sending the report in now so you can at least review it. Only three pictures, no videos.

"However, the real catch is the scan attached to the report. During the fight with the second daemon, the one with wings, Arlas was disabled and dropped his long rifle and sword. Both were then badly damaged by the daemon. The sword was a total loss, but I managed to get a scan of the intact portions of his long rifle, and found nothing unusual about it, other than the material used to make it."

Admiral Hackett frowned at the N7, before opening the files, and recoiling from the pictures. "Those… Where did those creatures come from? Were they with the eldar?"

She shook her head. "No sir, they were immediately hostile to the eldar, murdered two of them in cryo stasis, attempted to murder a third, and definitely tried to murder Arlas. He was in the medical bay for two days, and lost two of his three main weapons. His third main weapon, the fusion gun, was also heavily damaged, but our Quarian did handle that weapon for a few minutes, and even discharge it. I will check with her later to see if she got a scan of it, and if so, get a copy. However, the scan of a formerly working laser weapon, as well as lifeforms he was familiar with, were deemed…"

She stopped as she saw Admiral Hackett shaking his head. "No need to justify it to me, Shepard. I fully agree these are important enough to send immediately. I will get that weapon scan to the appropriate people. With any luck, we can accelerate our own laser weapon program. Either way, good job. Anything else?"

She shook her head. "No sir."

Admiral Hackett nodded. "Hackett out."

Jaclyn simply saluted the fading image, before allowing herself to relax. A few taps on her omnitool, and the records of the call were deleted, and all her security and privacy technologies deactivated. She then sat down in one of the chairs, and waited a few more minutes, before finally standing up and leaving. As she did, she smirked at the thought of having put another one over the eldar. It was surprisingly simple, just wind him up a bit, and his rage made him miss things. Though she did admit to herself she needed to be more careful in the future, as he had nearly been pushed to the point of attacking her.

* * *

Two days later, Arlas was finally finished with most of the tasks he had assigned himself. He was well on his way to being healed, though the ribs would still require another week or so if he kept up his healing meditations, but he should be healed in time for the Swordsmanship tournament. He had repaired his body suit, the fusion gun was fully repaired and ready for use, and the armor was mostly repaired as best he could without an armory singer, though he could do a few more things to strengthen the plating. He had catalogued everything from the _Guided Wrath_ , and made a few pleasant discoveries, though he hadn't found a good replacement for his witchblade or his long rifle.

Instead, he was now in possession of a mostly intact suit of Shadow Spectre, Howling Banshee, Striking Scorpion, and Bone Singer armor. Arlas also had a working prism rifle, though the main focusing crystal of the weapon was shattered, a trio of shuriken pistols, a chain blade sword, and a power sword. While he couldn't go and salvage all of it, as the eldar in the stasis pod would need her own equipment instead of just the undersuit she had gone into stasis in, he could use the intact weapons to start making duplicates that he could make modifications to. He had an idea of combining a long rifle with a prism rifle, and seeing what he could make, as well as a couple more changes to his armor. He had certainly salvaged enough wraith seeds to make conserving them practically a non-issue, unless he started a war against the universe or something.

So he should have been in a pleasant mood, but instead found himself in a bleak mood and knew exactly why. He had voluntarily disabled the biolock on the fusion gun and then given it to a mon-keigh to use. While he did trust most of the non-eldar on board the vessel to not immediately stab or shoot him in the back whenever they got an opportunity, he was under orders to not let his technology fall into non-eldar hands. And while he could make dozens of counter arguments about the daemon, being near death and not able to finish it off himself, the fate of the ship and the remaining survivors, but that didn't change the fact that he had disobeyed a direct order from a senior Farseer. The fact alone was enough to get him permanently exiled from the Craftworld, and the nature of the order he had disobeyed was enough to get him shot on sight in spite of the circumstances.

He shook his head to dismiss that line of thought, and stood up, stretching for a moment before wincing and dropping the pose, the still mending ribs protesting the pressure being put on them. He figured he had another couple of days before they were healed enough to let him do serious training, and a few more after that for actual combat, a little less than a local week with the use of the healing rune. Which meant the first day of the tournament would likely be interesting, by which he meant painful.

Arlas cursed at himself as he realized his thoughts were trapped in a negative cycle, constantly moving from one unpleasant thought to another. Normally he broke it by going out and finding something new, but he was trapped on board a tiny mon-keigh vessel, and had already seen everything. With a sigh, he got into his Warp Spider tabard, mentally settled himself, and left the lander, heading for the mess hall due to lacking better options; he knew interacting with others would at least distract him. Besides, he had been working alone in his lander for the past few days, the others might be interested in knowing he was still alive.

He looked about the hangar bay, and realized the wheeled vehicle was missing, so he was probably missing a mission. After a moment, he stepped into the elevator, and went to the mess hall to get something to eat. Halfway through the meal, others began arriving. Gemling was first, pausing just long enough to glare at him before heading to the medical bay, and a few minutes later came out with Dusk in tow. They sat together at another table with their backs to him after getting their meals, and talked quietly enough that he couldn't hear them. A few minutes later, Kaidan came in, grabbing his meal and taking a seat at the same table as Arlas, on the opposite side a few seats down.

Arlas ate in silence for a few moments, before deciding to be sociable. "Kaidan, the twin keep mentioning you get… migraines. May I inquire as to what those are and their cause? You seem to be the only one that gets them."

Kaidan glanced over, surprised at being addressed, but answered. "Not a problem. It is an intense headache, in my case brought on by my implant that allows me to use my biotics."

"Then why does Dusk, Wrex, or the Twins not get migraines?"

Kaidan gave a small smile. "Liara is an asari, they don't need an implant to use their powers, and most consider it a point of pride. Wrex is a krogan and a mercenary, and uses what implant he wants, and if it did cause him problems he would eventually regenerate around it or get one that didn't. The Twins have a more modern implant than mine, and while it doesn't have as big a power peak, it also doesn't have the side effects."

"So why do you keep using it?"

The human male sighed, and rubbed his arm as he replied. "Because I was one of the first ones to get the implant, and it is surgically implanted into my brain. Anytime someone goes cutting in there, there's a chance of things going wrong, and despite the occasional pain, the extra power is worth it. Besides, a bit of pain every now and again from my L2 implant is nothing compared to what some of the other kids have to deal with."

Arlas nodded, remembering some of the humans back home with psyker powers that had cybernetics grafted onto their heads, and guessed these humans actually cared about aesthetics. "What other side effects were there?"

"Well, I just get sensitivity to light and loud noises occasionally. I know of other kids, who were implanted at the same time I was, who died from the implants being installed improperly. Or who suffer from permanent pain, a host of mental disabilities, permanent long or short term memory loss, things like that. So I really can't complain."

"So it is a problem with the mechanical parts and not the ability or user. I had been curious as to why you had to keep missing assignments. I doubted it was cowardice, you were too calm on the missions for that."

The human male snorted, before letting the conversation die down for a moment. Eventually, he looked back over at Arlas. "I have been wondering about this for a while, but why do you only use Wrex's name, but most everyone else on the specialist team have nicknames?"

Arlas shrugged, before giving a partial answer. "Because some people have earned them, and others have not earned the right to be called by their names."

Kaidan stared for a moment before shaking his head. "Fair enough. Strange, though."

Further conversation was stopped by an announcement from the pilot. "All hands, brace for landing, we will be picking up the mako and ground team shortly."

Arlas frowned as he looked up at the speaker. "No comments from the pilot? Odd."

Kaidan just shrugged as he stood up and headed for the elevator. "Must have Lieutenant Pressly standing right behind him. Pleasure talking with you, Pathfinder, we should do it again some time."

Arlas stared at the human as he vanished behind the closing elevator doors, unsure if the human had been serious or subtly insulting him with the use of his title. He was still considering the situation fifteen minutes later when half the ground crew team exited the elevator. The first out were the three Spectres, followed quickly by Ashley. He watched them for a moment, but as all four vanished to their respective rooms, he decided to do the same. On his way to the elevator, he thought of something, and diverted to Tali. "Gemling, you said you can do anything if it uses circuitry and eezo, correct?"

The quarian jumped slightly as he spoke, before looking up and back at him. "Not quite anything, but I can do a lot more than most. Umm, when did I say that?"

"Lioness was talking to you in the hangar on the third day, en route to Therum from the Citadel. You claimed you could get a circuit board and eezo through a relay. I am not entirely sure what that would require, but I believe you can assist me in combining local shielding technology with one of my own armor sets. However, I suspect that will be after the Citadel sword tournament. Would you be willing to assist then?"

Tali stared at him for a moment, before slowly nodding. "If this isn't a prank, then yes. Though why not now?"

Arlas shrugged. "Because you have other duties, and I need the current time to ensure my blade work is up to my old standards. As the greater daemon proved, I am not."

"Escapee, he was twice your height, at least twice as strong as you were judging by his muscles when he fought you, and as I recall, took you out with a punch followed by a kick."

Both of them ignored Liara's shudder at the mention of the daemons, engaging in a staring contest. After a moment, Arlas spoke. "When I was a warrior of the Striking Scorpion shrine, I was assigned with my exarch and squad to assist in the clearing of a section of… our faster than light transportation devices that had become infested with daemons. My squad was wiped out, leaving only me when we were cut off and surrounded by three dozens daemons warping in. The rest of the purge group pulled back as the rest of the daemons tried to swarm them under, leaving me to fight the dozen surviving daemons on my own, and then spend an hour waiting for the purge team to destroy their group and return. I destroyed more daemons then than I care to consider using only a pistol and my sword. So yes, I am not acceptable, and will be returning to acceptable levels. I will let you know when I am ready for your help."

He turned and headed for the elevator, leaving Tali to turn back to Liara in huff. As he entered the elevator, he spoke again. "And Gemling."

He paused as she turned toward him, waiting for a second before nodding slightly. "My thanks."

The door closed before she could respond, and he relaxed slightly, having gotten the most difficult part of the rebuilding done with already, asking a mon-keigh for help. His relief lasted until the elevator got to the hangar bay, and opened to reveal Garrus stalking back and forth near the Mako, fuming aloud. "...goes and shoots himself! He doesn't get to shoot himself. Filthy, bare faced, traitorous scumbag. He should have gone back to answer for his crimes and face justice for the people he hurt and exploited."

Arlas strolled out of the elevator, nodded to the krogan at the weapon station, before addressing the turian. "Justice is a fancy word created by those in power to convince the powerless that they some protection from the powerful. The closest I have ever found to true justice was found at the end of my long rifle or blade. What happened?"

Tweaks whirled toward him, mandibles tight against his jaw, but after a second got himself back under control. "The bastard was Doctor Saleon, a salarian geneticist, a wanted fugitive. He killed himself rather than go back. I assume you want the summary?"

Arlas gave a shrug, before jumping up to sit on the edge of the wing of the lander, wincing as he landed from his ribs, looking down at the turian as he started his story. "Doctor Saleon was wanted for illegal cloning of organs on the citadel, along with a number of other, lesser violations. When he knew we were onto him, he grabbed some of his victims, he blew his lab with officers inside, and ran for the spaceport. By the time we realized he was still alive after the explosion, he was already boarded and hijacked a ship. We locked down the ship, but he managed to turn the GUARDIAN turret onto the clamps, blowing them out, before burning hard for the relays."

Garrus had finally calmed down, or at least gotten a hold on his rage to tell the story without cursing. "I called station control, advised them that the ship had a fugitive on board, and the security ships should either disable the vessel, or destroy it. The executor agreed with me. Unfortunately the civilian supervisor refused to pass the message onto the defense fleet, citing that the salarian had contacted control and threatened to disable the safeties on the FTL drive and then ram the station if any of the ships tried to divert toward him."

Wrex snorted in malicious mirth. "Come on, I bet even the eldar there knows that is shit. Those safeties are hard baked into the FTL drive. Tampering with one of the safeties completely disables the thing, and there are dozens. Even during the Rebellions when we krogan were ramming ships into planets, we still had to do a sublight run up to get up to speed. In all my years around the galaxy, I have never heard of anyone successfully disabling the safeties."

Garrus snorted, leaning against the Mako. "You are right, but the civilian panicked, and refused to pass on the order. By the time we managed to bypass her, Saleon had already burned past the defense ships, making interception impossible, and the only ship with a decent shot at him had several other ships behind him, making them unable to take a shot. Needless to say, he got away, the supervisor got fired with remarkable haste, and now there is a C-Sec supervisor to expedite comms to the defensive fleet. However, Dr. Saleon's ship transponder did get recorded, and I followed up on it, following him trading in vessels twice.

"Then we arrive in system, and what do we find but the last known transponder code for Dr. Saleon's ship, now going by Dr. Heart. I tell the Shepards about it, and they agree to swing by and have a looksee at the ship. So we get on board, and find that he had graduated from illegal cloned organs and terrorist threats to producing bio-monstrosities and slaving. He also had some weird tech on board, and the Twins said they wanted their engineers and Tali to go over and take a look at it before they turned it over to the SAI."

Garrus paused, before looking up at him speculatively. "I doubt it has anything similar to your own technology, but do you think you might want to take a look at it, since you are still recovering and can't go on the actual mission we came here for?"

Arlas frowned, before looking down. "Wait, we came here for something else, but did this extra part first?"

Wrex nodded, and rejoined the conversation. "Yeah, the Twins got a call from their leader, named… Admiral Hatchet, I think? Whatever, not important. Anyway, someone is knocking off former Alliance scientists, and the one on the planet below is the last one left of the group."

Garrus picked up the thread. "We got in system, and then called the colony, and found out the scientist was still there and alive. So the Twins had the local constables pick him up and take him into protective custody. I had done some checking, and found a ship transponder visiting the location of the other scientists, arriving and leaving within a day of the deaths, and the routes they took were as short as possible judging from the time between the attacks and the ship that is supposed to have that registration. Going by that, he should be here sometime tomorrow evening, ship time."

Arlas considered the request, before nodding. "I suppose I can take some time tomorrow to check out the salarian's ship. Though you never explained why you were ranting about justice."

Garrus coughed, before reaching up to scratch his neck, mandibles fluttering. "Well, once we fought past the two dozen or so mutated monstrosities he had created, we cornered him in the cockpit. With the frigate docked with him, he couldn't go anywhere, and our armor and lasers would easily beat his ship's own, so he didn't try blasting his way out again. Instead, he just sat in the pilot's seat like it was the Imperator's chair."

Arlas just tilted his head slightly, and raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Garrus. "Imperator?"

Garrus stared at him for a moment, before blinking in shock. "What? Oh, right. Uh, the Imperator is the highest position in the turian meritocracy. Anyway, he was just sitting there, trying to look up at us while at the same time clearly considering us well beneath him. I read him his rights, which was essentially that he had the right to remain silent or be beaten unconscious, and then he drew a pistol. We drew our weapons, and he just smirked, and asked if being shot would satisfy my sense of justice. I cocked my assault rifle, and told him it would be a close second."

Garrus paused, taking a deep, calming breath, before continuing. "He just gave me a small smile, and said 'so you probably will be less pleased about this then,' before putting the pistol to the bottom of his chin, and pulling the trigger before any of us could do something to stop him. Blew his head open like a rotten fruit hitting a wall. Needless to say, he was right, and that was what I was unhappy about. He was looking at several lifetimes in prison, and he took the easy way out."

Arlas jumped down from the wing, and landed lightly before speaking. "Death is never the easy way out. In fact, for many it is far worse than whatever is here."

Both of the aliens stared at him for a moment, before Wrex spoke up. "You speak like you know for a fact."

"Where do you think that daemon we fought came from? The same place souls go after their physical form perishes. Of course, that was back home, and your immaterium is far less vicious than mine, so perhaps it isn't so bad for your people. But for your justice, I believe he got it when he died. No god is going to protect that soul."

Wrex chuckled evilly as they ignored the turians' confused question about what daemon, before the krogan replied. "A pity most Salarians don't believe in things like daemons, gods, or souls."

Arlas gave an enigmatic smile. "Just because you don't believe in them doesn't mean they don't believe in you. And that is enough. Besides, there are things far older and fouler in the immaterium than 'mere' daemons."

Arlas entered the lander's troop bay with that cheerful thought, before heading back to the armory. Once there, he frowned, before deciding to fix the flamer pistol, as it was still dumping excess heat into the grip, followed by the runic armor. After that, he would see about combining what he had learned from the prism rifle into his next long rifle, and see what he got. That would last him the rest of the day at least, and then he would be focused exclusively on learning the two blades he had to use now. He couldn't rebuilt the witchblade, as he had no idea how to build the power field on the blade. Only the armory workers knew the secrets of the blades well enough to build them, and even repairs tended to require returning them to the armory.

* * *

Arlas walked quickly over to the airlock, conscious of the fact he was late. He had been trying to finish repairing his rune armor, and instead he managed to completely disrupt the inlay with an incautious thought, ruining the protective runes on it. All of his efforts since his talk with Garrus and Wrex a day before had been trying to repair the damage, and at this point he was forced to admit the armor's psy-shield was ruined.

He shook off his thoughts of his own incompetencies, which were coming more and more frequently of late, and greeted Tali and Kaidan at the airlock. "Apologies for the delay."

Kaidan simply nodded, but Gemling was less willing to let it go. "You are late. And… that is not your normal armor."

He rolled his eyes behind his helmet, unable to resist being sarcastic. "Your eyes function properly, congratulations. And correct, the damage was more extensive than I thought, and will require significant time and repairs."

Arlas was wearing his old carapace chest plate along with the rest of the armor from the rune armor, and carrying his pistol and fusion gun, but was not wearing his cloak. Not that he expected to have to use his weapons, but he was no fool, despite his nickname from the craftworld. Kaidan spoke up, heading into the airlock. "Come on, Liara and Chakwas are already across, helping the surviving test subjects Saleon had. I will be helping them, you two will be checking his ship logs and everything else. Hopefully we will be done before the ground team finishes down on the planet."

Shepard had deployed with the rest of the ground team in the mako an hour earlier, heading down to wait for the scientist killer to show up at the scientists' combined residence and workplace. The scientist himself was being held at the local arbitrators' headquarter building, having been quietly picked up the night before. As far as the settlement knew, the scientist was still in his building, unaware anything was wrong.

Arlas and the other two stepped through the airlock as it finished cycling, and he looked around, modestly curious at the second local ship he had been on. The transport was uninspiring, four small square storage pods attached to the main portion of the ship, a simple long block with engines on one end and a cockpit on the other. The airlock was between two of the storage areas, and as unimpressive as the exterior of the ship, a small, simple room with doors on both ends of it. The room connected to the long hallway that made up the center of the ship, with crates randomly strewn throughout it, though a cleared aisle from the front to the back of the vessel had been made.

Kaidan pointed to one end. "That way is the cockpit, and Saleon's personal workstation is on the right. Tech storage and several person pods are in the room on the left. If you run into problems, Liara, the Doc and myself will be down there, helping the people that survived his experiments or he didn't get to yet. Security is on the _Normandy_ , ready to sally if needed."

Tali headed down the corridor filled with crates, and after a moment Arlas followed. He still wasn't sure what he was here for, other than they thought that he might be able to help with the 'odd technology' they had found. As if using eldar technology somehow made him an expert on unusual technology. He stepped into the cockpit behind the quarian, and watch Tali take a seat at the main computer. After a moment, she turned toward him. "Are you going to just stand there and watch?"

"Do you trust me to wander around unknown technology?"

She started to reply, before stopping and tilting her head slightly. "Considering what you can do with only an omnitool, no. Just stay there and try to not break the ship in half or open all the airlocks or something."

Arlas regretted wearing his helmet, as she couldn't see the flat glare he gave her, but after a moment simply leaned against the wall, and settled in to wait. After a few moments, he turned his attention to the only thing of even slight interest in the room, and watched Tali as she tapped away at the computer, and just let his mind wander. His eyes wandered over Tali's form, idly curious as to what she looked like under that suit, and debated the merits of finding a different quarian so he could kill them and strip the body. After a moment, he decided against it, his own curiosity wasn't worth the negative reactions the others would have. Though if they found a pirate or slaver quarian, or one that someone else had killed, he would be able to indulge his curiosity without too much concern for the consequences.

He watched her for a half hour, observing how she bypassed the electronic systems with an ease and expertise that would have likely been of exarch competency if there was an eldar warrior shrine dedicated to it, before frowning at that thought. If his people were coming here, they would need someone to interface with the local species' systems, to learn what they were planning as so to protect the Craftworld, as well as hinder their enemies. As he had already found out a couple times, just passing knowledge of their systems wouldn't be enough, as he had nearly been killed twice due to not knowing what local systems could do. He spent some time trying to imagine what such an aspect warrior's armor would look like, light enough to get to their point quickly. But also heavy enough to survive whatever was thrown at them while they tried to get into the system and it couldn't restrict their arms at all, judging by the amount of precise manipulation it required.

The end result in his head was basically the Howling Banshee's lighter armor, with some heavy local shielding added and maybe a few small wraith seeds to quickly improve the available cover near a terminal. He glanced over at Tali who was digging into one of the side terminals of the cockpit, softly cursing under her breath at the computer system, before he suddenly had an image of her in the tight, thin, form fitting armor of a Howling Banshee. He quickly banished the mental image, even as he admitted to himself that she would probably be both quite good at the shrine, and quite distracting. Desperate to get that mental image out of his head, he asked Tali a question. "Interested in learning bladework?"

Tali's head snapped around, her eyes wide as she stared at him. "What?"

Arlas cursed himself for being a fool and an idiot, but he had already spoken. "I asked if you were interested in learning bladework. You have the natural grace to be effective at it, and I still need to learn more about electronics. I think it would be a fair trade."

She stared at him for a few minutes, clearly considering the offer, as she rubbed her hands together, before slowly nodding. "I think it might be a good idea to learn, but if my suit gets damaged…"

He sent his understanding. "You can die from a suit breach, I know. We won't start until after we get to the Citadel. Hologram blades would be safest for you."

The mention of hologram blades made her relax, and she nodded with considerably more enthusiasm. "Then yes, I believe I would like to. We can do that after upgrading your armor though."

He nodded and stood up. "Then I will leave you to finish here, and go start looking at the other technology they wanted us to examine."

She turned back to the side computer with a bounce in her stride, humming quietly to herself and projecting a surprising amount of pleasure as he left the cockpit, before turning to the right to enter the technology storage room. Once inside, he let the door shut, before heading to the wall furthest from the cockpit, removing his helmet, and then bashing his head against it several times. Done punishing himself for being a Khaine smote idiot, he replaced his helmet, turned to the various technology in the room, and began looking each piece over.

A couple hours later, he had moved into Saleon's personal workspace, and was looking over the last piece of equipment, having finally found something that seemed… exotic. All of the rest of the technology in the two rooms had been built with the same general aesthetics in mind as the rest of the local technology, but this one was different. The others were blocky, and general a dull pastel or metallic color, but this was a dull brownish yellow irregularly shaped object, and had almost been dismissed as a rock until he had spotted a screen on one side of it.

Once he had gotten closer though, he had realized something was wrong with it, and it felt… unclean, even from a distance. The feeling vaguely reminded him of a warp taint, but not nearly as insidious or revolting, more like something that only lightly corrupted. He kept his hands behind him, and simply examined it from as close as he could without recoiling in revulsion. Before he could come to any conclusions about the object though, his omnitool suddenly chimed, before opening up a communication channel. "This is Commander Joannis Shepard to all hands, return to the ship immediately, on the double."

He frowned and tried to connect with his warp jump generator, before remembering that it wasn't attached to the armor he was wearing. With a sigh, he turned and sprinted back to the airlock, idly noting a couple humans in the System Alliance uniform he hadn't seen before heading down the hall toward the cockpit. He avoided them with ease, slid to a stop in front of the airlock, which was orange, and joined Kaidan in waiting. "What happened?"

The human male replied with a shrug, before the airlock opened, and both of them stepped inside. As the decontamination cycle began, Kaidan opened his comm channel. "Commander, me and Arlas are in the decon chamber now. No one else behind us."

"Good, report to the briefing room after you get in."

Kaidan gave Arlas a slightly confused look, before nodding. "Copy that."

Arlas shifted as the vessel suddenly accelerated, but he was used to the sensation of movement without actually moving, and no longer rocked when the ship went to FTL. A minute later, the inner airlock opened, and both of them headed down the walkway toward the CiC and comm room, and quickly entered, to find the rest of the crew seated, and the Twins radiating both vicious pleasure and some anger as Jaclyn spoke. "Alright, everyone is here. The SAI frigate arrived about a quarter hour ago, we just finished briefing the captain and transferring the prisoner and the witness over, so we are done here. But the reason I called everyone back is because we just got a call from our CO, Admiral Hackett. He sent us a message and a video capture that he thought we might be interested in."

The screen behind them flickered to life, showing a large vessel shaped like a jet black cuttlefish with arcs of red lightning flickering across its hull, surrounded by seven much smaller steel grey insectoid ships acting as an escort screen. "This image was recorded and attached to a distress call from Feros, right before all comms with the colony there was lost. The distress signal was initially received two hours ago. We are the closest combat vessel, six hours out from the relay system, plus a day and a half transit to the system, and one hundred sixty hours behind us the Seventh Fleet will be sending a full cruiser squadron with a double sized escort. Our mission is quite simple. Get into the system, see what Saren is doing, and if possible, kill the bastard."

 _A/N - And with that, we now return you to the main plot. I hope you all continue to read, review, favorite, follow, but most all, enjoy. Oh, and be gentle on the eldar, he isn't used to being in proximity to this many mon-keigh for this long._


	21. Feros - The Machine War

**Chapter 20 - Feros - The Machine War**

' _Knowledge is power. Guard it well.' - Blood Raven Chapter motto._

Arlas frowned at his armor, before shaking his head in despair. The rune armor was definitely ruined, and was beyond his ability to fix. The remains of his long rifle had completely decayed away, and he hadn't had time to replace it or his sword, so he grabbed the power sword from the Howling Banshee armor. To round out the rest of his equipment, even though he wasn't anticipating being on the ground needing it, he took his fusion gun, flamer pistol, and death spinner, due to the brief claiming that megatowers covered all of the surface, or at least the entirety of the surface where they were. It was going to be close quarters for the entire mission.

However, he was planning on spending most of the mission in his Vyper, providing close air support since he was still healing. He would have preferred the lander, but with everything being inside megatowers, the heavy weapons of the lander would more likely bring the tower down than just kill the opponents, assuming he could even get a good line on them. At least the Vyper would be small enough to follow inside and support if needed.

Done checking his equipment, Arlas stretched slowly and carefully, wearing only his bodysuit and his Striking Scorpion tabard, until he felt his mending bones protest the movement. He winced and quickly stopped, gently rubbing the sore spot as he left to go find the Twins. They wanted to have their talk, as there was nothing else to do in the time left for the journey to the system. They had wanted to do it earlier, but he had simply pointed out that he needed his equipment intact as possible, and put it off until he had done what he could. Wrex was sitting on his cot in the corner of the hangar as Arlas stepped out of the lander, doing something with his omnitool. Arlas gave Wrex a nod, and stepped into the elevator with a small smirk as Wrex grumbled to himself, heading for the Twin's room. He knocked on the door, and entered as Joannis called out. "Enter."

Arlas entered the room, and saw only the Lioness, who gestured to the seat. "Time for that Q&A session. Sorry, question and answer. Jaclyn is dealing with the ship, since the two of you don't get along, but is listening in. So let's begin. First, well, you've shown us the Orcs, and Wrex said you said something about Tyranids. Let's start with the lifeforms back from where you came from."

* * *

Two hours later, Arlas watched Joannis skim back through her notes on everything he had told and shown her. She had learned about the various races and factions, as well as a brief version of the commonly known eldar, Human, and Tau histories, and what most psykers were capable of. The question of mind control had come up, and he had said that while it was possible, to his knowledge it relied on long term exposure of several weeks to become permanent at the absolute minimum, resulted in a significant personality shift of the target, and the psyker had to remain in proximity and channeling to generate the effect, making it exceedingly obvious something was happening.

There were exceptions, of course, but most of those directly involved daemons, and the rest almost always involved them indirectly. That knowledge had seemed to relax her a bit, even as she acknowledged that he might be misleading her. Her questions about Chaos and the Warp, however, he had flat out refused to answer, only saying that the daemons he was familiar with might not be here, but there were things far older, fouler, and alien in it than 'mere' daemons. She had not been happy with him refusing to answer, but he had refused to say more on the subject, and eventually they had moved on.

For now, he was heading back to the hangar, as Lioness headed to the CiC to take command and insert them into the system. He had just gotten off the elevator when he felt the _Normandy_ jerk, indicating it had dropped out of FTL. He felt the ship swing around, and then jump again, this time only a few seconds before the next lurch. Grumbling about the mon-keigh's inability to make a proper inertia dampener, he got into the lander, and did a final check on the Vyper. * _Either of you wish to ride with me?_ *

Both of his spirit stone occupying companions indicated that they did not, Kap'Eiyl staying in the wraithguard, and Yol'Pvera in the lander. He gave a mental shrug, before entering the cockpit of the attack hovercraft, and gently boosted it out of the lander and into the _Normandy's_ hangar bay. A few seconds later, it was ready to deploy out the back of the ship, and he jumped out, looking around. Wrex had already put away his cot and gone up to the CiC to wait, leaving him alone in the hangar. A shame really, as he had no idea how long it would take for the Twins to get to the planet. Instead, he did a quick lap around the hangar, and found a clear spot that he could use for the Vyper so he didn't have to keep storing it in the cramped troop bay. It would also free up some more space so he could move extra supplies along with the full allotment of troops.

For this mission, he planned to use the Vyper to provide heavy, close hover support if possible, and if not, protect the colony, built at the top of one of the megatowers. Supposedly there was a pair of GUARDIAN laser turrets protecting the colony proper, but he doubted it would stand up to an actual attack if the colony was directly attacked. If the colony was even still around, that was. He doubted it would be, if it was an eldar mission. Precision laser bombardment from lower orbit, just powerful enough to cleanse the top floor or so of the tower.

After a moment, Lioness came onto the ship-wide paging system. "All ground team to the briefing room. All ground team to the briefing room."

Arlas shrugged to himself as he finished checks on the Vyper and found the hovercraft was in adequate condition, before heading to the briefing room. A couple minutes later, and he was in the room, and took his usual spot on the wall. "Alright, we are all here. First things first, Arlas, what is your status?"

"Mostly healed with just soreness and minor aches. Armor is damaged so will be using my Vyper attack craft to support. I don't anticipating getting out of the hovercraft unless absolutely required. Long rifle is still being repaired, and my sword is replaced, so offensively I am ready."

Joannis nodded, and Jaclyn stepped up. "Alright, that changes a few things, but we can work with that. The colony is still being jammed, but there are no geth vessels or Saren's dreadnaught in the system that we can sense. Long range scans of the planet show we are on the wrong side of the planet, so currently Joker is swinging us around. Joker, how much longer?"

"Ten minutes ma'am, unless you want an FTL jump toward the planet?"

The twins shared a look, before Joannis spoke. "Do it."

Joker paused, before speaking carefully. "Ma'am, stealth systems can't hide our entry or exit from FTL. So everything will know we are there."

Jaclyn nodded. "Understood Joker. Do it."

Joker didn't reply, but Arlas felt the ship jerk, and a couple seconds later jerk again as they arrived. "ETA to view, one minute. Hopefully nothing saw us, otherwise this is going to be a very interesting flight."

* * *

Unbeknownst to the humans and their allies, while there were no ships in the immediate area, there were several dozen probes scatter about the system. One of the probes observed the Systems Alliance frigate entering the system the first time from FTL, and two observed them performing their in-system jump to the planet, before sending out a very specific signal.

In the halo cloud of the system, a geth cruiser and three frigates drifted cold in space, waiting. As they received the signal from the probe ten minutes after it had been sent, all four powered up and made a decision concerning the contents of the message. Once the geth programs had reached consensus, they sent a coded signal of their own, and then went toward the colony at FTL, fifteen minutes after receiving the signal from the probes.

Saren had anticipated someone following his trail, and left a gift behind for them.

* * *

Joker did a fly over the colony site at mid-orbit level, taking it slow to make it harder for someone to see the ship, and to give the sensors more time to observe the site. The colony looked mostly intact, though several of the buildings were burnt shells, and a freighter had apparently landed hard enough to break itself in half in the largest landing zone. They could see two GUARDIAN laser turrets, and there were definitely beings moving around in the colony, though it was difficult to tell with passive sensors if they were geth or organics. The twins were leery about using active scans, as that would reveal them to everyone watching, but after a moment ordered it anyway. They had already blown their stealth getting to the planet as quickly as they had.

After a few moments to interpret the signals they received, the Twins resumed the briefing. "Alright, Joker is going to dock in the landing bay, and unload the ground team. Arlas, you will be in the hovercraft, your choice which you use, and providing overwatch, so try to not blow up the tower with the big guns. Collateral damage would be… misfortunate."

Joannis took over the brief. "We unload in five minutes. Teams will be Team Heavy and Team Light. Team Heavy will advance to contact, while Team Light provides long support. We are here to save this colony people, but the mission comes first. We are here to stop Saren, so if the colonists are being idiots, we cut them loose. However, that is worst case scenario, and until then, we do what we can to assist them. Remember, these are civilians, and have been under attack for nearly two days at this point. Any survivors would be a boon, if only so they can tell us what is going on."

Joker came over the comm line. "Ma'am, problem. There is a geth ship parked right in the only landing bay, churning out geth units."

The Twins shared a look, before sighing. "Arlas, hangar bay now. Joker, kill it, then drop the hangar bay door. Everyone else, we have to jump so…"

Arlas already was out the door and running, but instead of taking the slow elevator jumped into the service tunnel beside it. It contained a series of rungs built into the wall so the crew could move between levels without waiting for the elevator, or if the elevator was disabled. Arlas didn't bother, instead using his hands and feet to slide down the wall, applying pressure to slow his descent until he hit the floor of the tube. Instead of taking a minute and a half, it had taken him fifteen seconds to get to the bottom.

He quickly jogged over to the Vyper, as Joannis came over his omnitool. "Arlas, where are you?"

"In my Vyper in the hangar. Used the ladder."

"... Good thinking. Opening the bay door. Joker is killing…"

The Normandy shuddered as its main gun fired, now doubt from point-blank right into the engines of the parked geth dropship, as Arlas entered and merged with the Vyper. "... the geth dropship, but you need to clear the troops pushing up the stairs into the colony that way. Stay alive, but thin the bastards out. Otherwise the companies of geth troops will simply roll over the colony."

The hangar bay door started to open, and Arlas guided the Vyper out, doing a quick barrel roll to get under the rising Normandy as it headed to drop off the rest of the ground team directly into the colony, the burning geth dropship wreckage now blocked the landing bay. "Understood."

He juked the hovercraft to one side to avoid a barrage of projectiles, though he could hear small arms fire hitting and deflecting off the Vyper's armor. Thanking Singer for having the foresight to uparmor the hovercraft so a random rifle could not reliably damage it, he began hosing down the stairway leading up to the colony with fire from the shuriken cannon. At least, he assumed it led to the colony, as he could see dozens of geth platforms moving up the stair way.

He tried to stem the flood of units, but there was enough of whatever the megatower was made of in the way that he was only annoying and delaying the geth, not killing them in numbers enough to matter. As more and more enemy fire began coming his way, even as the platforms continued to head for the colony, he was forced to spend more time dodging and less time butchering the enemy. He hissed in frustration to himself as he realized killing the troops would be difficult if not impossible, before suddenly noticing a large metal tank built into the wall beside the stair well. He continued to spray the shuriken cannon at large concentrations of geth platforms, trying to keep them hitting him with heavy weapons, and fired the starcannons at the metal tank.

Arlas mentally cursed as the first barrage of plasma missed the tanks, hitting the wall to the side of it and blowing out large chunks of the structure. He cursed out loud as every geth platform stopped what it was doing and immediately began trying to shoot him down, making it increasingly difficult to hit the tanks as he put the Vyper through maneuvers he hadn't quite realized it was possible for a hovercraft to do to avoid taking critical damage. He aimed the second barrage from the starcannons as best he could, and fired again. The first two shots from the linked cannons missed, impacting the stairwell, but the last shot from the right cannon hit the metal tank, right above the large yellow triangle sign with a flame on it.

Even as the shot hit, though Arlas felt something impact the undercarriage of his hovercraft and detonate. It felt like something had punched him in the chest, thanks to his link with the craft, but he quickly cut the anti-gravity field, letting the vessel plummet. The tank finally exploded, the plasma eating through the thick metal siding of the tank, and even at a distance of nearly a hundred meters, Arlas could feel the shockwave fling his hovercraft backwards. He could also feel several metal and rockcrete shards, from the tank and tower respectively, slam into the hovercraft, the burning sensation from the impacts indicating some actual damage was done. A quick check showed a jagged metal spike, about half a meter long, had impaled itself into the canopy of the cockpit just to the right of directly in front of his face, and the hovercraft controls were already getting sluggish. "Arlas to Shepard."

"Jaclyn here, what the fuck was that explosion? Was that you? You made the entire tower shake for a few seconds"

"Yes. Fuel tank in the landing bay, all geth troops either disabled or unable to reach the colony. Significant damage to Vyper; I need to land soon."

"...Fine, land in the colony. Joker is out chasing dropships. And warn us next time you plan to set off an explosion underneath the rest of the group."

"Busy. And make sure the local defenses don't attack me."

The Vyper was getting harder and harder to control, but he didn't have to go far. He managed to make it up over the lip of the wall that surrounded the colony, but could feel a growing burn along his stomach and back, indicating the Vyper was on fire. He needed to land, soon.

Arlas directed the Vyper forward, and noticed the defense laser turrets were swinging around. He glanced up and behind him, wondering if something else was up with him, before suddenly realizing that both turrets had targeted him. He felt everything suddenly slow, and became conscious of just about everything in front of him. The soft glow on the barrel of the turrets as they began to fire. Joannis frantically gesturing at some colonist standing at a console near one of the turrets. Wrex using one geth platform to bludgeon another platform. Tali pointing her omnitool at one geth chassis as a large red platform just stepping out of cover to her side. Ashley, Kaidan and Icivia near a staircase leading upwards, stemming a tide of geth reinforcements. Garrus on top of a prefabricated building, firing his sniper rifle. Liara dragging one colonist into cover, her omnitool held over the wound, likely dispensing medigel. Several other humans in what looked like proper armor with light plating, a couple with shields attached to one arm fighting in a circle near the largest prefab. Then time resumed its normal flow.

Arlas jerked his mind to one side, trying to get the drunkenly wallowing hovercraft to dodge, and then felt a piercing pain in his chest, as if someone had shoved a spike through it. He glanced down, but saw no damage, before remembering these were laser turrets, and if one had hit him directly he would have exploded. The phantom pain that felt like a hole in the side of his chest was from the hovercraft, and he suddenly realized one of his engines was out as the vessel began losing altitude and spinning.

He grimaced, and had just enough time to brace himself before the hovercraft crashed on top of a prefab, thankfully right side up, before it skidded, bounced into the air, and then plummeted down to slam onto its side on the ground. Arlas groaned inside the cockpit, idly wondering why he couldn't stop getting hurt these last few missions, before mentally reaching back out to the Vyper. The remaining engine could still apply some basic lift, enough to get the Vyper right side up and pointed to the staircase where more geth were still trying to emerge. He made sure the others were out of the way, and pulled the trigger as he lined the Vyper up with the entry.

The turret promptly exploded, but the shuriken cannon was just fine, firing a hail of monomolecular shuriken into the doorway, completely shredding several geth platforms still trying to advance out the doorway. He kept firing into the doorway, a thick pall of dust rising from shuriken that hit the frame of the door and the wall around it, until another rocket from one of the geth already in the colony screamed by, just missing the cockpit. He jerked backwards reflexively, and the badly damaged Vyper tried to respond, only for the remaining engine to fail entirely, causing the hovercraft to finally fall to the ground.

Arlas disconnected himself from the stricken hovercraft, and winced as his body started protesting the damage he had taken from the impacts now that the damage from the hovercraft wasn't overriding them. He took a few seconds to get his breath back, before being reminded he was still in an active combat zone when a couple bullets bounced off the side of his craft. With an annoyed grumble, Arlas pulled out his power sword and pistol, activated his cloak, and then popped the canopy. He quickly sought cover, though felt an errant bullet bounce off his chest plate as he ran. Cursing under his breath about not having a long range precision weapon, he mentally resealed the canopy of his Vyper, before taking stock of the situation.

The geth advance at the entrance to the colony from above was halted, his barrage had stalled it long enough to Icivia to deploy several of her turrets in protected locations, which were comprehensively shredding everything trying to push through it, especially since Icivia was staying to help with her shotgun. Ashley and Kaidan had moved to assist in clearing out the geth already in the colony. Joannis and Jaclyn were annihilating a white geth unit twice their height in one corner of the colony with the combined biotics, while Wrex had moved to the interior of a prefab, where he had engaged an entire company of geth units judging by the raucous laughter and the sounds of combat coming from it. Garrus had jumped down to join Tali, who were advancing toward where Liara had taken cover with a couple of injured locals near what he guessed were the consoles for controlling the laser turrets that had shot him down. The humans he had not seen before, the ones in heavy armor like what Ashley or Wrex wore, were still gathered around a single prefab in the center of the colony, covering the three entrances, four men to an entrance.

Curious about the newcomers, he took a moment to examine them. All of them were large for humans, or their armor made them appear bigger, and wore heavy green armor, a larger pauldron on their leading shoulders. The front and center one had a large shield attached to one arm, and was firing around it with a handgun, an orange slot, like the hologram plating Kaidan could add to his armor, allowing him to look out without worrying about sniper fire. On the left and right, two humans in heavy armor but wielding heavy assault rifles stood, firing away at the nearby geth, while behind them a person in medium armor fired a long rifle, taking out priority threats. Each group seemed to work together, and reminded him of a veteran stormtrooper squad of the Imperial Guard. Competent and dangerous if underestimated or ignored, but slow, cumbersome, and easy to work around if someone was careful and skilled.

Done taking stock of the situation, he began looking around for some way to help, but even as he looked around, he could hear the rest of the squad announcing they had run out of targets. Arlas looked around, and cursed as he saw that his Vyper was on fire, the purple flames indicating that the power cell for the turret was damaged. He ran back over, and mentally began twisting the energies of the eldar craft, popping the cover just as the cell failed, all of the energy dumping out the sudden hole in the back of the vehicle rather than blasting free of it. He cursed as he knelt down to examine the damage, before he concluded the Vyper was a wreck.

He wouldn't leave it behind, but he wasn't going to be able to repair it himself. Both starcannons had exploded when he had tried to fire them, likely the barrels had been damaged upon impact with the ground or the prefab during his first fall. The shuriken cannon seemed intact, but he couldn't get under the chassis to give it a full check. Several pieces of shrapnel had pierced the chassis in several spots, most obviously the canopy but another had ripped off most of one stabilizer wing, and the other had been crushed during the crash. But the worst damage was a sizeable crater in the front cone, where the forward stabilizer had been, likely damage from the turret. Shaking his head at the wreck, he headed over to talk with the Twins and see what they were doing next.

The Twins were talking with one of the green armored soldiers he had seen, as well as a woman in more basic brown and black armor and a man in common worker clothing. The green armored soldier was one of the ones with a shield attached to his arm, and carried a large pistol on his hip. The worker carried a simple pistol on his hip, and seemed to be nervous about something, understandable with Geth running around. The woman was waving an assault rifle around, and snarling at the Twins.

As he approached, Jaclyn turned to him, and then glanced at his hovercraft before wincing slightly. "Total loss?"

Arlas nodded grimly, before turning to the others. Joannis cut off the woman, no longer amused at her ranting. "We came as fast as literally possible. If that isn't fast enough for you, we will be more than happy to leave and come back at a time when you will be more appreciative. Otherwise, be silent unless you have something helpful to add. Fia Dan, I apologize for our tardiness, but you are quite a distance from the relay."

The armored woman ground her teeth, before turning and stalking back into the prefab. The working male simply nodded. "Yes we are. I apologize for Arcelia. Thank you for coming though. But the Geth will be back. They also blocked our water supply, but we had enough advanced warning to start stockpiling some things. As long as the Alliance gets here soon, we should be fine."

Joannis nodded, as Arlas suddenly became aware of something on the very edge of his mind. It was similar to the singing orb thing he had found, but far quieter, and he hadn't heard it while approaching the planet. He frowned, before dismissing it from his thoughts to pay attention to the conversation, the worker still speaking. "Our food will hold out for as long as two months, we got a freighter in right before the attack, and they managed to unload a significant portion of their supplies before the geth hit it.

"Water is a bigger problem, we only have a couple more days worth, as they turned off our water supply somehow. Likely redirected the aquifer to another area using the connections on the lower levels.

"But the biggest problem is power. Those turrets are going through it quickly, we have only a couple hours, at most, before the turrets power down, and then the geth can just hover overhead and off load as many units as they want. There are a few destroyed salvaging vehicles in the levels below us, we used those to hunt for prothean relics and artifacts before the geth came. They might still have a few power cells we can jury-rig to provide power for a bit longer. But there are geth in the tunnels below us, Michael here would know more about that."

Jaclyn turned and yelled for Tali, before assigning her to the turrets, and then designating Kaidan and Garrus to help. She then called Liara over, assigning her to make sure the colonists were doing alright, and provide first aid. Ashley and Wrex were last, saying she was taking the two of them with her into the tunnels to do some geth hunting, and some other stuff. Joannis just grinned at her sister, before turning to the large human in green armor. "Lieutenant Michael, glad to meet you again, and to see you got promoted. I am sure it is well deserved."

The human grinned back. "Glad to see the Lioness remembers me. Take it you want to know about the geth, and why Phalanx Company has a squad here?"

She nodded, and the big human turned and clapped Fai Dan on the back, staggering the colonist slightly. "We military types got this, mate. You go take care of your people."

Joannis watched Fai Dan leave, before turning to Michael. "Alright Michael, what is the situation?"

"Fucked ma'am, and it ain't just the geth. Might wanna put a helmet on, ma'am, just in case."

Arlas frowned, as Joannis raised an eyebrow, but put her helmet on anyway. "Explain."

The human brought up his omnitool. "Corporal Tenenbaum, an engineer of mine, noticed it first, there is something in the air here. Some kind of seed or fungus spore, he thinks. He has a logic arrest three omnitool, and was running tests on the air after the geth blasted a hole in the tower above us to drop troops, same ones that came out that building your engineer is covering. Worried the dust might cause issues, like being flammable or explosive. Instead, his omni identified this."

Arlas frowned as he looked at the display, noting the displayed… thing was shaped like a long, thin seed, but had freely waving tendrils on it. "At first we weren't worried, figured it was something that was coming up from the permanent dust cloud below. But when he asked the Exogeni personnel about it, sending the picture, they got really shifty, and told him it was nothing, ordered him to delete the file and tell no one about it, or it would void the nondisclosure portion of our contract. Funny thing, our contract was with the System Alliance, not Exogeni, didn't have a non-disclosure agreement, and nothing about listening to their stupidity, so he told me, and I asked the colonists about it.

"When I asked though, every colonist in the room froze when they saw the image, and then flinched like they just stubbed a toe or something. Painful but not damaging. Every one of them then refuses to look at the image from then on, and claim they have no idea what it is."

Joannis frowned, before shaking her head. "Odd, yes, but why…?"

"Because ten minutes later, after walking out of the meeting, one of the colonists tried to brain me with a sledgehammer, one of the ones from the meeting that flinched when he saw the image. He said it was dark, and he thought I was a geth that had snuck into the colony when we questioned him later. But I stopped going anywhere alone at that point, and ordered the rest of Phalanx Company to as well."

The big human leaned down, looking the smaller Shepard right in the eye. "I am just a soldier, ma'am, but I know a cover up when it tries to murder me. I have no idea what it does, and we don't have the processing power on our omnitools to figure it out. But you have your frigate's computer. It might be able to analyze this… thing enough to tell us why Exogeni and the colonists want to hide it so bad. And if not… well, the geth have a frigate parked in the tower that Exogeni was using as a base. And if you are here to deal with the geth, then you have to deal with that frigate at some point. And maybe you can use your Spectre access to figure out what Exogeni knows."

Joannis hummed at the thought before nodding. "True, though what are you doing here Michael?"

The big guy straightened and then leaned against the wall, smirking slightly. "Same thing I was doing on Elysium with Captain Ajax when it got hit by the Blitz and the company made history with you. Training up the local militia, teaching them how to actually survive in a fight, how to take cover, fire and movement, how to suppress, how and when to retreat, things like that. Won't make them into soldiers, but will make sure they ain't snow larks to a hunter. Still will get killed, but won't get utterly butchered in the first two minutes of a fight. And to deliver and help install the GUARDIAN laser defense turrets. Though we didn't expect the geth before we had a chance to start training the locals up, we were in a bad way toward the end there. Lucky you and your crew showed up when you did, we were just about to fall back into the central unit to make a last stand. If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, who is the bloke? Oh, and sorry about your… craft?"

She glanced at Arlas, who was playing with his omnitool, trying to get it to scan the air to view the spore himself. "That is Pathfinder Arlas of the eldar race. He is useful, even if he has had the worst luck on the last few missions. And no tech skills at all."

Arlas refrained from snorting. "Haven't died yet, so not the worst luck."

"You got your arm cut off, stabbed in the gut twice, shot six times, and just had your hovercraft shot down in flames. You are as close to worst as you can get without dying."

He gave an eloquent shrug, before giving up on his omnitool. "What do you want me to do?"

Joannis frowned, before looking around. "You aren't medic trained and have all the social charisma of a dead batarian _glorpi_ -sucker fish, so not with the colonists. And I am certain you and Icivia are still secretly trying to murder each other, so not the perimeter. We need it intact, not in pieces."

She hummed to herself, ignoring his glare, before turning to Michael. "How would someone get across to the Exogeni tower?"

"Two ways assuming you don't just fly. The first is to use the mostly covered vehicle roadway to get there, but there are multiple geth armatures in there, the condition of the roadway is poor, it is cluttered with plenty of rubble, and they were mining it last we saw before we pulled back to the colony. The other way is a small passage under the vehicle roadway, but it doesn't connect to the roadway directly as far as I know. You can get to it by taking the stairs the geth were coming down, then the elevator down a landing, and entering the vehicle bay. The door in front takes you to the roadway, the passage is a small door on the right wall. Bit of a climb and then walk, or so the colonists told me."

Joannis nodded, before turning back to Arlas. "Feel up to a bit of scouting?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, he was in the passage, carefully moving down the narrow hallway. The first thing he had checked was to make sure there wasn't a sniper at the far end of the kilometer long passage, just firing shots every now and again in case someone was trying to sneak down. Thankfully the wall at this end was undamaged, so he doubted that the simplest solution was in use. He still stayed low, just in case. He had been given an hour to scout as much as he could, before he needed to report back to the colony.

He moved smoothly, taking his time to ensure he didn't cause his cloak to shift from concealment to distortion, but quickly found that Michael had clearly not had time to stick his head down here himself. Otherwise, he was fairly certain someone would have mentioned the ubiquitous rooms on each side of the passage. Not very deep, only a few meters, but long enough that the rooms shared walls. Though considering most had small slits to let someone view the interior from outside, maybe they were originally meant as storage spaces. Either way, he had only checked a couple of rooms, which had both been empty, before the Twins contacted everyone in the group. "Joannis to all teams. Joker just reported a Geth cruiser and three frigates inbound to the planet. Arlas, keep doing what you are doing. Everyone else, head to the vehicle bay under the colony."

Arlas grumbled about being in a time crunch again, but continued to move carefully. He paused twice to deal with a few geth units in the passage. For the first group he used the fusion gun, wiping out the geth fireteam that had made the mistake of grouping up in one of the side rooms. For the other, well, that trick was going to keep him amused for a few weeks yet. The only way it could possibly have been funnier would have been if he had understood why the geth had gathered around the plasma grenade after one of them had picked it up before activating it.

* * *

Geth trooper platform unit T15963A02 looked around the small room it was in, visually confirming that nothing had changed since its last check exactly one half of a minute previously. Contact had been lost with Tunnel Team 01, but no alarm had been raised, and no sounds of combat recorded. An error report had been logged, but they were to wait for the genocidal organics to come down into the passage to avoid the descending squadron of geth ships. It could see trooper platform units T10023T91 and T32009Z15 in the other side of the room, spread out to avoid presenting a target, while hunter platform unit H08912L11 stood in the entrance, its powerful shotgun at the ready.

Exactly nineteen seconds after its last visual inspection of its surroundings, it heard something clatter to the ground at the closest end of the room. It immediately pivoted, bringing its weapon up to bear in the direction of the noise, but found no targets. Warbling an error message, its visual inspection noticed a small orb on the group, slowly rolling back and forth at the end of the room. When it tried to use its more advanced sensors to check and see if it was an explosive, and determine what the ball was made of, however, its sensors did not register the ball. The geth platform made a diagnostic check of all its sensors, and then repeated the scans and diagnostic check no fewer than one hundred seventeen times over three seconds, before realizing it was stuck in a logic loop. A quick check reached the internal consensus that the ball was a visual artifact or the result of damage to its visual sensor, and did not actually exist.

The geth unit straightened and took four steps, before bending over and picking up the ball. This immediately caused all its other functions to crash, as it was forced to conclude that the ball was real, even though only its visual sensors could detect it. Realizing that such an item could not possibly exist, it attempted to form an internal consensus with the programs contained within its chassis about the ball. After two seconds of being unable to come up with a satisfactory consensus, it turned to the other units, and requested assistance in binary. (Alert: this ball exists.)

The three other units immediately turned at the… unusual declaration of their fellow unit, before immediately running their own scans on the ball. (Observation: Ball does not appear in any scans but visual. Internal consensus: Ball is the result of damage to visual sensor or data artifact.)

Unit T15963A02 turned and tossed the ball against the wall, where it hit with a click, before bouncing back and being effortlessly caught by the unit. (Alert: this ball exists.)

The other three units quickly formed a circle around the ball, before carefully examining it with their sensors again, and also examining the feeds from the other Geth. The first unit turned the ball so they could see all of it. Unit T32009Z15 offered its conclusions first. (Internal consensus: Ball is made of material that does not register on electromagnetic, gravitronic, thermal, or ultraviolet scans.)

Unit H08912L11 responded. (Alert: No material matches description provided.)

There was a brief pause before Unit T32009Z15 warbled back. (Internal consensus: Ball is made of new material that does not register on electromagnetic, gravitronic, thermal, or ultraviolet scans.)

Unit H08912L11 countered. (Alert: proposed material is impossible with known models of the universe.)

All four geth paused for a second to stare at the ball, before Unit T15963A02 adjusted its grip to look at the parts that its digits had covered. As it resecured its grip, the orb suddenly emitted a point of light, which began circling the ball, making a line. (Observation: Ball is now emitting light. Alert: Light does not register on any sensors but standard visual.)

The geth examined the ball, watching the light circle it, before Unit T32009Z15 responded. (Internal consensus: Light is the result of damage to…)

The light finished its journey around the ball, and converted the ball into pure, rapidly expanding plasma. The expanding plasma immediately engulfed the units, interrupting whatever conclusion the geth trooper had come to. They were destroyed before they could notify the Consensus of the new material they had discovered, its unusual properties, or even how they had found it.

* * *

Arlas got to the HUD marker he had applied at a distance of a quarter kilometer, before activating his omnitool. "Tunnel clear to quarter marker. Continue or pull back?"

Jaclyn responded. "Continue deeper, the _Normandy_ is attempting to ambush the geth squad. Updated orders in two minutes."

* * *

It was as quiet as a cemetary in the CiC of the _Normandy_ , as the ship slowly eased into position behind the advancing geth squadron. They were arranged in a modified pyramid formation, the three frigates arrayed in front of the heavy cruiser in a tight triangle formation. All of their active sensors were running, and the _Normandy_ sensor operator reported that while they had been scanned several times, the IES, or Internal Emissions System, had absorbed the signals, exactly as they were designed to. Yet in spite of the success, no one moved or spoke more than they had to, afraid that the slightest sound or movement would somehow betray their locations to their opponents.

Staff Lieutenant Pressly stood at the command console, reviewing the data. "Come about to heading zero zero one, increase thrust by two percent for three seconds."

Joker replied. "Aye sir, heading zero zero one, thrust up by two for three seconds."

Serviceman Caleb Morkopl was at the weapons control console. "Entering optimal firing position in five seconds. Three torpedoes targeting each frigate, remaining seven for the cruiser. Main gun at one hundred percent charge. All guardian lasers at full power, no heat build."

Servicewoman Michelle Draven was monitoring their heat sinks. "Heat sinks at twelve percent capacity."

Joker cut the extra thrust from the engines. "Engines back at geth cruising speed."

Pressly looked at the various status displays in front of him, and nodded grimly. "Target the cruiser with the main cannon."

Joker nudged the ship, bringing it around to put the targeting reticle directly over the engine cluster of the geth cruiser. "Aye sir. Target locked. All javelin's locked."

Pressly took a second to review all the data and ensure everything was correct, before giving the order. "Fire all."

* * *

Arlas made it another hundred meters down the tunnel, before Joannis transmitted a message over the squad channel. "Joannis to all ground personnel, the _Normandy_ took out the incoming squadron, continue with previous assignments."

Arlas grumbled to himself, but was glad he had remembered to take a comm bead, so he could hear reports without needing to broadcast them from the omnitool. Someone might hear him listening to orders.

He was a third of the way down the tunnel, and had yet to find anything other than the first two teams. A quick check of the room on his right indicated nothing inside. When he stepped out, however, he saw a potential problem coming down the kilometer long passage. A fairly large one, actually. He quickly stepped back into the room, and opened his communicator. "Shepards, Arlas. Geth moving in force down the tunnel. Armature, at least two destroyers and juggernauts, and assorted other units."

He glanced down the tunnel from his cover, glad the rangefinder in his helmet had a built in zoom function, allowing him to identify the approaching enemies. They weren't moving quickly, the Armature was too slow for that, but having the equivalent of a light tank made them something of a threat. After a moment, Jaclyn called him back. "Arlas, say again? Comms were breaking up."

"Geth, moving in force down the tunnel. Armature leading, two juggernauts, two destroyers, and assorted other units."

After a moment of silence, Jaclyn came back. "Understood. You have the melty gun?"

"Yes."

"Then you are to destroy the armature and then fall back. Ashley and Garrus are coming down to start sniping the other geth. How far is the group from this end of the passage?"

He used the rangefinder, before advancing forward, ignoring the side rooms now. "Approximately nine hundred meters."

"Understood."

He advanced down the passage, until he reached the halfway point, and found something almost as concerning as the advancing geth. "Arlas to Shepards. Found stairs leading up."

Joannis answered him this time. "Bypass for now, you can check after the push is dealt with."

Arlas continued closer to the geth, stopping at the six hundred meter marker and taking cover in the door to one of the side rooms. A few minutes later, the geth had reached the seven hundred meter marker, and he was just about to call and find out where his help was, when one of the geth troopers suddenly had its chest explode. He heard Tweak's flanged voice in his ear. "Scoped and dropped!"

Arlas rolled his eyes, before dropping onto his stomach, and carefully leaning around the corner. The geth had sought cover with a speed and efficiency only machines possessed, none of them screaming sniper, or standing around to catch the next sniper shot. Only the armature kept up its plodding advance, unable to fit into the side rooms. The geth let the armature advance as quickly as it could, soaking up sniper fire, and once the large walker had passed the next room, the geth began advancing to the next cover. Geth Snipers attempted to fire back, and he could hear Ashley swearing softly as she took a couple hits, but all the upgrades the ground team had been acquiring by dealing with all the incidents and extra assignments paid off, and she managed to get back into cover without being wounded.

The scene of the geth's advance repeated itself eight more times, the entrances to the side rooms off set every ten meters, despite Tweaks and Anvil's best attempts to stem it. None of the geth were providing easy shots to the main processors in their chests, and the armature's shields were surprisingly robust, soaking up all the fire the two snipers put into it without noticeably reducing the shields. It wasn't until Arlas spotted a small hovering machine behind the armature as it got closer that he realized what was happening. "Tali, are there drones that can restore shields and do the geth have any?"

"What? In theory, yes, but it wouldn't be good for much else. Not that I know of, but if anyone would, it would be geth. Why?"

"Figured out why the two snipers can't put down the walker, it has one of those behind it filling its shields up. Hold one."

The armature had finally come into range, and Arlas planned to do something about it. He carefully removed the fusion gun, aimed it at the big walker, and caressed the trigger. The gout of superheated plasma roared out, and slammed into the walker's shield, before the heat haze blocked it from view. Arlas quickly rolled back into the doorway, as geth fire suddenly lashed at his position. It was so thick he didn't dare stick his head out to try and aim his next shot, so he simply pointed the barrel of the fusion gun around the doorframe, and pulled the trigger again.

He kept firing the fusion gun as fast as he safely could, never choosing the same height to shoot from, trying to avoid having the gun shot out of his hand. After a minute or so of firing, he carefully leaned around the corner, to see the results of his handiwork.

The amature was vaporized. The passage was now unpassable, a large section of it melted from him having to estimate instead of aim his shots, and the rock like substance the passage was made from glowed dimly, its surface hissing and popping as it shed heat and bubbled. Arlas could see that the geth had withdrawn, several geth firing as they made the last turn, and only a juggernaut still in the passage. Before he could call in that the attack had been fought off, Tweaks beat him to it. "Shepards, Garrus. Geth are in retreat, they really didn't like Elfy firing off the melty gun. Though I think he damaged the passage a bit. Might have to find another way around."

Arlas frowned as he realized that Tweaks had called him Elfy, and made a mental note to correct the male turian later about it. Before he could do more, new orders were issued. "Ashley and Garrus, stay down there and keep an eye out for more geth. Arlas, you mentioned stairs earlier. Clarify."

"Passage leading up, likely to the roadway."

"Confirm that, and then report back."

Arlas headed back, and climbed slowly up the stairs, keeping his fusion gun out. With the cloak active, he wouldn't be spotted unless he had extremely bad luck. That thought made him pause, and then curse himself, before continuing upward; thoughts like that attracted the Twin God and Goddess' attention. He climbed two levels worth of stairs, both the landing leading to blocked exits, before suddenly stopping and activating his communicator. "Twins, Arlas. Hear voices. Humans. Arguing."

He tried to listen to the conversation he had heard above him, but only caught last few words. "...nothing now."

He waited a moment, and Joannis got back to him. "Pull back, the rest of the team is coming. Do not try to make contact with whoever you heard. Michael mentioned that all the colonists were accounted for at the colony when the shooting started. Might be Exogeni survivors. Meet us where Garrus and Ashley are. Tali has a gift for you."

Arlas rolled his eyes as Tali protested in the background, but Joanniss cut off her communicator before he heard anything specific. With a mental eye roll, he silently withdrew, lest he tempt one of the humans at the top of the stairs to lob a grenade down it. Once he got back to the passage, he glanced at the direction the geth had come from and retreated towards, and noted that the passage was still quite heated, before heading back toward the colony. He arrived after the rest of the ground team arrived and finished talking to Garrus and Ashley. He nodded to Wrex before turning to Tali. "Lioness said you had something?"

She glared at him for a moment, making him wonder what he had done to earn her ire, before idly deciding it was the same thing he did to earn every woman's ire; existing. After a moment, she pulled something off her back and offered it to him. "One of the geth back at the colony dropped this, and it was intact enough to give you some use."

He took the rifle, and after a moment of examining the unusual gun managed to find the button to expand it. Its collapsed form was oddly shaped, mostly reminding him of a piece of piping, but with an odd greenish-blue sheen to the metal. Once deployed though, it was clearly a long rifle of some kind, the metal sides expanding out to reveal several cords and ribbed tubes in the center, as long as he was tall. A scope popped out of the top, and the back of the piping extend and expanded, revealing the stock. A single long barrel extended from the front, making the geth long rifle even bigger than his destroyed rifle. The design clearly wasn't meant for an organic, the hard lines of the stock dug into his armor and suit, but it would at least give him something to use at range.

He finished his inspection of the long rifle, before looking up at Tali and nodding his thanks, before turning to the twins. He didn't say anything, as they had called his meeting. "Arlas and Ashley will be staying here to guard the tunnel. Everyone else will be coming with us to the Exogeni tower. If we can't make it down the passage thanks to Arlas being trigger happy, we can hoof it down the roadway, and deal with the armatures, troops, and mines on it. First though, we are going to check out that report of people down the passage. Arlas, details."

"Stairs leading up on the left side, halfway down passage. Two levels up heard voices."

Jaclyn rolled her eyes behind her fully enclosed helm. "Succinct. Lets go people, might be able to figure out why there are geth here."

Arlas glanced at Ashley, before heading to the opposite side of the hallway, and setting up the sniper rifle to rest on the ground, before lying down. It was on the opposite side he normally shot from, but he was adaptable. After spending a few minutes getting as ready to repel a counter attack as he could, he settled in to wait. Anvil, however, quickly proved that she lacked the discipline to do her job. "Awful nice of Tali, taking the time to get that rifle for you."

He continued to watch the passage, ignoring the distracted human. "I mean, she must have taken thirty minutes to hunt up the rifle and defeat the security features on it. Could have spent that unlocking one of the geth shotguns, but instead…"

"How you humans became the dominant species following mine is something that will forever baffle me. Focus on our duty, save the musings for when we are victorious."

Ashley's tone went low and insidious. "What? Eldar can't walk and chew gum at the same time?"

He was saved from her inane babbling by the Commander's on the communicator. "Arlas, Ashley, Michael. We found some Exogeni survivors. A few scientists, an administrative leech, and a double handful of security forces. However they refuse to relocate to the colony proper, in spite of their current location being less than defensible. Make of that what you will."

Ashley snorted, but the commanders continued the brief. "Considering the state of the lower passage, we are going to check the roadway. With any luck, geth have pulled back some, and will be clustered near the Exogeni tower. If so, Arlas, can you have your lander make a strafing run on their forces? Without blowing apart the roadway?"

Arlas would have sent back his annoyance at such a simple order, but at more than half a kilometer, they were too far for him to reach for that level of precision. "If they aren't under the covered portions, of course."

He could reach Yol'Pvera because she was a psyker herself and the lander had an amplifier, and could help establish the connection. * _The Twins need us to save the day again. Launch, and get ready for strafing runs. You have an active communicator?_ *

* _Yes. I can receive only._ *

He sent back his understanding, and returned to the conversation with the Twins. "Yol'Pvera is on the squad channel now. Can't respond, but she can hear. Describe the target, and she will annihilate it. She is five minutes out, and launching now."

"We will settle for killing the target. Annihilation will cause damage that might collapse the structure."

He rolled his eyes, and returned to watching the hallway. He immediately frowned inside his helmet. The air was still disturbed due to the residual heat from the fusion gun, but he was certain that there was a shimmering outline on the far side of the heat haze. Deciding a bolt was worth less than a wound, he brought the rifle up, glanced through the scope to check the rifle's alignment, and was surprised to notice an outline of a geth unit. He mentally shrugged to himself, just as Ashley started chatting again. "So, when are we going to meet this co-pilot? If not for Liara and Tali's story of the singing orb/egg/artifact thing, everyone else would think her a figment of your imagination."

Arlas simply fired his newest long rifle, and watched the bolt hit something, producing a spray of white fluid. A half second later, a black and grey geth chassis faded into view, the top half of its chest missing and the head severed, before falling forward onto the ground. "Well spotted, Anvil. Truly, you are a soldier without peer, whose keen vigilance will surely protect your people from great threats."

Ashley stared at the geth 'corpse' before turning back to him. "That was at least two thirds of a kilometer. How did…?"

"By paying attention. Now focus."

* * *

An hour of working with Ashley was turning into more of a strain than fighting lictors in a jungle, if only because she kept talking. He didn't mind learning about family or history, it made figuring out how to manipulate her simple, but it did raise some interesting questions, like why did she join a group that clearly hated her, considering her father never made it past the lowest rank in spite of a perfect service record? In the end, he concluded that mon-keigh were just strange, and that she enjoyed punishment.

Though her current and most common 'conversation' was the most torturous yet. She was implying that Tali liked him and desired him as a mate. Which was the height of foolishness, cross-breeding between species was unclean and a waste of time and energy as nothing would result from it. Except eldar and humans, but that was because the gods enjoyed tormenting the Asuryani. Though only Fallen Asuryani males would willingly copulate with a human female, and no Asuryani female would tolerate the touch of a human male. And even if one did, the eldar female would kill herself as soon as she could.

Though he did admit that the asari caused that thought process to derail a bit. He would need to do more research into the exact mechanics of how an asari took genetic information from a non-asari mate. If it was a psyker phenomena like he suspected and was something the Asuryani could learn, then the eldar could use it to more quickly expand their populations.

He frowned, and did another communicator check with the mercenary company who were guarding the vehicle bay, making sure the geth hadn't pushed them out. "Arlas to Phalanx Company, status check."

"Same as it was fifteen minutes ago, mate. Dead quiet. Kind of creepy actually, I expected a geth push by now. Maybe the commanders are doing more than we thought."

The commanders had entered the Exogeni tower more than half an hour ago, their advance unimpeded by the geth after they had called on Yol'Pvera to make several strafing runs, clearing out the larger walkers, and clusters of infantry. Arlas simply grunted in reply, before changing the channel. "Joker, status."

The pilot technically didn't have to respond to his status request, but with nothing else to do, the pilot clearly didn't mind the distraction. "Nothing on comms or sensors here. Your lander has landed, by the way. Anything from the commanders?"

"No. Nor the geth either."

"Oh, well, just as well for the latter. I don't know what I would do if they invited us over for tea. Or would it be oil and coolant fluids? And I have nothing at all to wear. … What do you think female geth look like?"

Arlas closed the channel as Joker went into a winding monologue about geth genders and fashion, before wishing for something to shoot. Sadly, after he had sniped the first geth scout, no others had come down, or if they had, he had not seen them.

Five minutes later, Joker suddenly contacted him. "Joker to ground team, is there something wrong with the colony?"

He exchanged looks with Ashley, letting her respond this time. "Ashley here, not that we are aware Joker. What's the problem?"

"The colony just took some pot shots at us with their GUARDIAN lasers. They scratched up the paint job before I could get us out of range."

Arlas stood up, and collapsed the geth long rifle back into its carry form, before pulling out his fusion gun. Ashley swapped to her assault rifle as she replied. "Understood Joker, we will check it out. Might be a power problem causing the system VI to triage the IFF sensor."

"Yeah, well, break your foot off in someone's ass for me, they scratched my baby. I would, but I don't think I could get very deep."

Ashley laughed, before killing the channel and opening the one to the mercenaries as they started ascending the stairs to the vehicle bay. "Michael, problem. The turret fired at our ship. We are going to check it out."

They got out of the stairwell before he replied, and he closed the channel to talk directly to them. "They haven't reported anything wrong. Want one of my engineers to go with you?"

Arlas was heading for the elevator, and idly noticed the indicator above the door showed it was already descending. Convenient. Ashley shook her head as she followed right behind him. "No, the colony must have several we can use. Having it up and working right will benefit them as much as us. Just keep an eye on the stairwell, a cloaked geth scout tried to get through a while ago, they might try it again."

Arlas was almost to the elevator when it dinged, making the others in the vehicle bay turn in surprise. Arlas rolled his eyes at how unobservant the mon-keigh were, just before the elevator opened. Arlas stopped in shock, staring at the gaunt humanoid figure staring at him. After a second, he realized the elevator was full of them, and that they didn't have eyes, instead just empty, gaping holes. Instead, he could feel psyker enemations coming from them, and frantically began backpedaling, trying to exchange the fusion gun for his flamer pistol and power sword.

The figures suddenly broke into a lumbering run, the first one's hands reaching for him, revealing its fingers ended in claws. He swore and dove to the side, barely avoiding its grasp, before realizing the humans were gaping in horror instead of being productive, though a few were starting to turn and raise their weapons. "Open fire you fools!"

 _ **A/N**_ _\- Looks like someone moved their time table up. Hopefully the heroes can deal with it._

 _As always, read, enjoy, favorite, follow, and review. Also, moved my Author's Notes to the end of the chapter, seeing if the different formatting works._

 _Also, if anyone wants to submit a character for inclusion into Phalanx Company, send me a PM, I will send back the details about them, and the roles you can have in the group. Remember, these guys are essentially mauve shirts, to use the TV Tropes term, so if they get killed horribly, well, they are mercenaries, sometimes you become heroes, other times someone becomes a hero for killing you. Phalanx Company will, however, be sticking around for the entire story line, and are mostly good guys._

 _Also, another thanks for all the readers who have reviewed, favorited, and followerd, as this story is now in the top 25 ME/WH40k crossovers on the site in all three categories. Quite an accomplishment, and very inspiring for me._


	22. Feros - Fighting Back

**Chapter 21 - Feros - Fighting Back**

' _An open mind is a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.' - Blood Raven Chapter motto_

Arlas knelt down beside the most intact of the shambling corpses, examining it along with Williams and Lieutenant Michael, while the other mercenaries gathered around a couple other corpses. Williams spoke first. "Creepy bastards. Wonder what happened to turn people into this?"

One of the mercs spoke up. "Omni's not reading anything like human DNA in these, ma'am. Lots of other things, sure, plant, fungi, various animals, but nothing human."

Arlas looked up, and frowned. "And they were using psyker power to determine what was where. That is why they were able to track me even after I activated my cloak. Interesting trick, wonder how they did it. Even my people have problems tracking minds in the swirl of combat."

Williams, however, was somewhat distracted. "Creepers."

Everyone paused and turned to her, and she grinned back. "What? I got the first kill, therefore I get to name them. They are creepy as anything you can name, so Creepers."

Most of the mercs grinned or laughed, no doubt appreciating the attempt at humor to restore their morale. Despite the swarm of Creepers surprising the party from behind, the mercs had had enough room, and Arlas had been enough of a distraction, that only Ashley had gotten swiped by one before she had shotgunned the head off one. That hadn't killed the thing, but it had stumbled back enough for her second blast to shred it's torso, which had finished it, or damaged it enough to prevent it from attacking further. By then Arlas had his flamer and sword out, and was frying and slicing the swarm after him apart. The mercs had carefully applied their firepower to avoid hitting him, something he had been sure to thank them for.

Now they had a different problem, as Arlas looked around at the group. "So, who is in charge with this… additional complication?"

The two humans near him shared a glance, before Michael shrugged. "If you have a plan, then you."

Arlas nodded. "Alright, Williams will stay here and assist in holding this point. I will head up to the colony, and scout the situation. Williams, alert the _Normandy_ of the new hostiles and see if they have had any more luck raising the rest of the squad. What do your people have to say about these… things?"

Williams grinned at him. "They have a name Arlas; Creepers. Say it with me. Creeeeeepers."

Arlas ignored Williams as she had apparently lost her mind, and waited for Michael to stop laughing and respond. "Mostly plant and fungal growths, but they are full of a strong acid, not sure why. Strong enough to be melting the surface of the Prothean concrete. No shields, but they are hard to put down as they lack a centralized nervous system, and apparently don't feel pain so they are tough sons of bitches."

Arlas grinned under his helmet, before pulling out his death spinner, and checking the weapon. "Then I will head up and take a look around."

Williams finally finished saying the name she had come up with in increasingly nonsensical ways, and stood with him. "And I am coming with you. Joannis told me to keep you out of trouble."

He stared at the human, his three blood red optics and dark grey and red armor no doubt intimidating as he regarded the human like a statue, before he simply turned and walked to the elevator, not saying a word. She wouldn't listen if he did, and he wasn't going to undermine his own suggestions by repeating them just to have her ignore them. "Michael, stay here and keep control of the bay. Any colonists we find will be directed here."

The mercenary nodded, and turned to direct his men to new positions as Arlas and Williams entered the elevator. He pushed the button to take them up, and glanced at the human. "What did the _Normandy_ say about the new development? Or were you too busy repeating your name for those creatures?"

Ashley glared at him, before opening a communication channel to the _Normandy_. By the time they had climbed the tenth of a kilometer in the elevator to the top, she had finished her conversation. They hadn't heard anything from the commanders after they had entered the Exogeni tower, but active scans of the tower did show that the number of geth positions were decreasing, the jamming was becoming less overwhelming, and what they thought was the squad was still moving around. The frigate was still in its landing bay, unwilling to leave with the _Normandy_ prowling about, waiting for it, but since it faced the entrance, they _Normandy_ couldn't do anything about it without coming under the guns of the target.

Arlas understood the implied problem well, it was the same one the eldar had when fighting other races. They hit absurdly hard, but they simply couldn't take the same amount of punishment in return. They didn't have the numbers to get into fights of attrition, and used other skills to tilt fights in their favor. The _Normandy_ was similar, as his investigations into the ship had revealed. It was a stealth attack ship, and while its larger than normal core meant it could run faster, had powerful shields and a stealth field, its physical defenses were merely average. In a stand up fight, it might take critical damage taking down even a similar opponent, and if outnumbered, it risked outright destruction.

Therefore,it was better to keep the Normandy off to one side of the tower, watching the landing bay, waiting for the geth to come out. Sadly, that meant they were on the other side of the Exogeni tower, more than a kilometer away, and unable to come over and help without letting the geth frigate slip out to try and attack them. Which meant that Arlas and Williams were on their own. He simply checked the death spinner, and looked at Williams. "You are going to make this more difficult. You should wait with the mercs."

She glared at him, before pulling her shotgun back out. "I can keep up with you easy, Elfy."

He refrained from snarling at the nickname the entire crew suddenly seemed to be using, and made a mental note to track down whoever had come up with it and introduce them to an airlock. "Your death. Just stay behind me."

The elevator dinged as it got to the top, and opened to find a Creeper straightening and turning toward them. Arlas leveled and fired the death spinner, and watched the barely visible shot hit the Creeper in its upper abdomen, the monofilament wire trashing as it uncoiled from its wound up position, cutting the Creeper in half. The coiled wire tangled around the pieces of Creeper, and continued to wildly uncoil, cutting the Creeper into smaller pieces which rapidly began dissolving.

Ashley had just gotten her shotgun leveled when the Creeper came apart and fell, and watched in horrified silence as it continued to get cut to pieces by what appeared to her to be some invisible force. "What the actual fuck?"

"Monofilament wire, coiled around itself. As it flies, the wire thrashes as the tension releases, cutting through flesh and light armor easily. Kinetic barriers **should** prevent it from hurting you, but it moves slowly enough it might not trigger them. Hence why I desired to move alone."

Williams shook her shock off, and then shook her head. "I can avoid it."

Arlas didn't bother communicating his disbelief, and simply kept moving. He rounded the corner, took the stairs down to the doorway that led to the colony, and looked around, before frowning. He quickly retreated to where Williams was waiting. "Problem. The monsters are moving around the colony."

Ashley cursed, and started forward. "Then what are we waiting for? We need to help the colonists…"

"The colonists are mixed among them, and not being attacked. All the colonists I could see were armed. Assault rifles and pistols mostly, and they aren't fighting the monsters."

"...But… why would…"

"Because they are working with them?"

"...why… Dammit."

Arlas was getting annoyed with the human's inability to adapt to the new situation, and made a note to talk to the Twins about it. Assuming they were alive. "Doesn't matter. We need to find out where the things were coming from, and deal with them if possible."

Having a course of action seemed to help, and Ashley nodded grimly, before following him back into the room where the Geth dropship had been dropping troops. As he expected after the Twins, Ashley, and Wrex came through, the room was a mess, pieces of destroyed geth and dropship scattered about, but he was only interested in the hole in the ceiling. After climbing over some debris, he reached over, and wrapped an arm around Ashley's waist. She yelped in shock, but before she could try to kill him for getting grabby, he fired his grappling hook into the edge of the hole with his other arm, and reeled the two of them up. A minute later, and he climbed up onto the roof of the tower, having helped Ashley get up first. As he got up, Ashley glared at him. "Tell me what you are doing first next time. I almost shot you on reflex."

"Then you need better reflexes. Colony is that direction, keep low, move forward. Mind the holes, edge, and wind."

He moved forward far faster than Ashley, less concerned about a fall than her, and soon was crawling up to the edge, in spite of providing power to his cloak. He didn't believe in taking unnecessary chances when there were unknown forces lurking about, even if he was twenty meters above the colony. After a minute of watching the colony, Ashley joined him, and he sighed before leaning over to her. "White and pink do not camouflage make."

The human glared at him, before hissing back. "This is the armor I was issued, dammit. I do not enjoy it. You want me to get something better, tell the requisitions officer to do his damn job."

He snorted, his gaze already tracking the various creatures shambling throughout the colony. Most were the blank eyed things Ashley had named Creepers, but there were at least two others. He activated the vision enhancement visor attached to his helmet, and zoomed in on the first while speaking. "Two new opponents. First target, forty meters out, by the door Icivia held against the geth, facing toward us, angled to our right. Upright, carrying what looks like a geth assault rifle. Two arms, three digit hands, two legs, two digit feet, unusually broad and deep chest. Wide, crested skull with four eye sockets, but no eyes. Has some kind of blue container or pack on its back. Designating them Crested."

Ashley had pulled out her sniper rifle, and nodded as she looked at it through the scope. "I see it. Looks like they are made out of the same vines and stuff as the Creepers. No idea what the thing on its back is for. Want me to take a shot and see what happens?"

"Negative. This is scouting, not assassination. Second target, fifty meters out, by the crashed freighter. Its…"

Arlas stopped and sighed, before shaking his head. Ashley, however, chuckled. "Looks like an asari, made of plants, but seems far more well built and detailed than the other two. Another one for you to practice your kidnapping fetish on? I mean, it is already naked.."

Arlas gave her a glare that should have blown her off the roof, before resuming his description, having been recording everything on his omnitool. "Second target appears to be modeled on an asari. The one appears to have had a far higher level of skill applied to its creation, as the others were closer to models or puppets, while this one appears almost alive. Other two creatures lacked eyes, but this one has them. And while others lacked gender distinct attributes, asari facsimile is…"

He paused, trying to find the human words, but Ashley was more than willing to fill it in. "Asari creature is almost disturbingly life-like, other than the fact it is green instead of blue. I wouldn't be surprised if that thing could have sex. And… is it wearing heeled boots?"

Not the points he was going for, but Arlas had to admit she was probably right. As he watched, the asari-plant moved from the freighter and sauntered into the colony, pausing in front of several of the colonists, who reacted like they could hear it talking, even though its mouth didn't move. After a few more minutes of watching, and the two of them identified nearly a dozen of the Crested, more than forty Creepers, and two more of the asari-plants, which Ashley insisted on naming Succubus, or Succubi for groups. It was all the same to Arlas, and he had her transmit what they had seen up to the _Normandy_.

The most important fact, after identifying the new possible hostiles, was that the plant things were coming out of a hole in the middle of the colony, which the freighter had covered. A crane could lower the piece of crashed freighter over it, though Arlas was of the opinion that the colonists had deliberately moved the freighter there to cover the hole, before disassembling it, regardless of what he had been told. It was just too damned convenient that the freighter had crashed in such a way that the crane could lift part of it to conceal or reveal the hole. Either way, the concealed hole was where more of the Creepers were coming from, though only a dozen came out before stopping.

Arlas cursed, and stood up. "Stay here."

He fired the grappling hook into the concrete and quickly dropped down into the colony. He ignored Ashley cursing at him on the communicator, and moved swiftly but carefully toward the hole. After a few minutes of moving forward, avoiding the various plant creatures, he saw his decision had been right, as one of the colonists was moving toward the crane console. No doubt the colonist was about to lower the crane, sealing the hole.

He just barely made it into the hole before the colonist began lowering the piece of freighter. He got to the down to the first landing, and looked up, seeing only the barest a hint of light from the hole, only his vision enhancements built into the visor and helmet let him see in the darkness. It did explain why most of the plant creatures didn't use eyes to find their opponents or prey.

He turned, and nearly cried out in surprise as he spotted a trio of the Creepers standing there, staring at him despite his cloak. Then all three reared back like they were about to roar, and his dangersense screamed at him. He dove under the Creepers, taking a bad roll down the staircase that would doubtless leave him aching later, but he wasn't where the Creepers were facing. And from the retching and hissing noises he could hear from the upper landing, he concluded it was just as well. He yanked the first weapon he could grab off his back, which turned out be the fusion gun, and turned and fired it. The burst of plasma vaporized the three Creepers, as well as the some of the staircase near them and a bit of the far wall.

Arlas quickly swapped the fusion gun for his death spinner, to avoid melting a load bearing wall or column or something, and headed up to check what the noises he had heard. He quickly discovered the hissing noises had been from the acid the mercenary had reported the Creepers carried, and he guessed the retching noises had been how they weaponized it. After a moment of consideration, he turned and began heading down the stairs, reflecting that it was no worse than any number of Tyranid weapons and significantly better than the rest.

He paused at the next landing, and took a moment to settle himself, ensuring he was ready for combat. He expanded his mind and suddenly noticed the warp signature he had felt before in the colony again. This time it was stronger, and he realized it was because the freighter wasn't blocking the feeling anymore. He took a moment to examine what he could of the signature, before concluding it was the most alien thing he had ever felt, and as an eldar pathfinder, that was saying a great deal. He didn't have much time to dwell on the signature, as he heard something moving around on the next landing.

He quickly glanced down, and saw a Crested waiting on the landing. It wasn't looking up at the stairs, but rather out a hole in the stairs into a darkened room. The pathfinder moved carefully past the landing, and deeper into the bowels of the megatower, curious as to what he would find. It took him half an hour to descend down the tower's fifteen story staircase, moving slowly and carefully to avoid the various plant creatures. Once he did though, Arlas cursed and turned right back around, as the stairs ended in a long drop, about two stories worth, and a pile of rubble.

With an exasperated sigh, he turned to begin working his way back up, but stopped as he suddenly got a call. "Arlas, this is Joannis, can you read me?"

Arlas cursed the timing, and quickly moved into a room he had spotted on the way up. A quick glance around showed it was empty, allowing him to respond. "What?"

"Bad time?"

"WHAT."

Joannis sighed on the other end. "Status. Ashley reported you entering the colony and getting into the tower under the colony through a hole under the 'crashed' freighter before the hole was sealed. Also told us of several new hostiles, though the colony isn't being attacked."

"Significant sections under the colony, seen several Creepers and Crested, no Succubi. No way for someone to get in without having to blast through outer wall or fight through the colony. Will report back when I have something to report."

He closed the communication channel, and looked around the room. Light was coming from a small crystal embedded in the ceiling, and rubble had fallen from the ceiling, but there were no significant holes, enemies, or anything of importance in the room. He stepped out, and began to carefully ascend the stairs. He had to ascend two levels before he found the first unblocked passage, but a glance at the floor showed that it was likely unused, as the dust was undisturbed, and quite thick. A glance down the hall showed the room at the end was brighter than the staircase, and after a moment he decided to investigate. He climbed the wall using barely noticeable imperfections, the gloves and boots of his armor molding to give him a grip on the impossible surface, and began shimmying down the hall toward the brighter room. He smirked to himself as he moved, enjoying the strain of his body from defying gravity, moving as all eldar outcasts did; unexpectedly. It was why eldar rangers had a reputation of being able to find a path anywhere, no matter how well protected or isolated, let alone the pathfinders like himself who were renowned for _making_ paths to where they needed to go.

The psychic signature he had felt earlier was close now, it felt like it was a couple stories above the room at the end of the hallway. It took only a handful of minutes to get to the end of the hallway, and the first thing he noticed was that this particular room had a large, circular hole built into the center of it. Dozens of the lighting crystals were embedded in the ceiling, making it fairly easy to see everything in the room. And there was a lot to see.

The room was overflowing with plant life, and he could hear insects and small animals moving in the thick foliage. At the edges of the room, he could see several pipes leading into the room, providing plenty of water. The plants in the room looked vibrantly, almost obscenely healthy, unnaturally so, in fact, in spite of being in the center of a mega tower on a nearly dead planet. It was so thick and lush that Arlas, with his centuries of experience in moving through all types of jungles and forests, couldn't spot a way through without advertising his presence or taking hours to cross. And if there were any of the plant creatures hiding in that brush, they would easily be able to ambush him.

Arlas examined the room, and spotted several of the plants in the room swaying as if in a breeze. In a closed room, however, that meant something was brushing against them. Convinced of his decision to not enter, he backed out of the hallway toward the stairs. He was halfway back when a pair of Crested entered the hallway, one carrying a geth rifle, the other empty handed. He froze instinctively, his centuries of experience telling him that movement would be noticed, even with his precious cloak concealing him, but the creatures both reacted immediately, clearly having some other method of discerning his location The one with the rifle brought the gun up and fired, while the unarmed one gathered energies in its hand, and started to gesture at the eldar.

Arlas dropped off the wall onto to the ground and rolled into one of the doors in the hallway before the second Crested could finish its biotic attack, firing his death spinner as he rolled, but the monofilament wires glanced off a purplish barrier, revealing that both Crested were biotics. He swore, and swapped the death spinner for his flamer pistol and the power sword. After a moment of considering his options, he tapped his omnitool, opening a communication channel to the Twins. "Arlas to Twins, spotted by Crest and pinned down. Will advise if situation changes."

The eldar reached out with his mind, and cursed as he realized that he couldn't hear the Crested, but the noise was now louder. It 'sounded' like a mind, but it had an odd cadance to its thoughts. And there was an unusual hissing noise, that sounded like it was somewhere above him. Arlas suddenly looked up, realizing that the hissing noise was actually a sound, not a psyker noise, and locked the clamps holding his fusion gun and death spinner on his back just as the several parts of the room's ceiling suddenly collapsed. Almost three dozen disemboweled Creeper forms fell, the acid they carried having eaten through the floor, allowing two dozen other Creepers and two Succubi to drop down.

Arlas turned, firing his flamer pistol at a cluster of Creepers and lunging forward to stab one of the Succubus in the gut. He ripped the blade up and out of the plant asari, never seeing the Succubus standing near the hole in the ceiling, looking down at him. He quickly cut a Creeper that had fallen in half as it started to rise after collapsing from its fall, before hosing the second Succubus in flames. He started to turn to the door as he heard steps approaching from that direction, trying to get out of the room before the rest of the Creepers finished standing, before the world suddenly froze. Arlas cursed to himself, suddenly realizing it wasn't the world that had frozen, but himself, likely a biotic stasis. He was halfway turned to the door, and three of the remaining Creepers surrounded him in front, staring at him with their eyeless skulls. He heard two sets of footsteps stop behind him, and concluded that this was about to be unpleasant, before wondering how long the stasis was going to last; by his reckoning, he had been in stasis for more than half a minute, when he suddenly felt his ability to move return.

Before even he could do anything, though, he felt a heavy impact against the back of his neck, and staggered forward, right into a blow from a Creeper to his face. Even though his helmet, he felt the impact, like being punched by an Imperium Space Marine, and hit the ground in a daze, idly grateful that his helmet hadn't been damaged. He tried to get up and keep fighting, only to feel a second impact to the back of his head, this time dropping him into unconsciousness.

* * *

Joannis glared at Ethan Jeong, but her sister had already decked him with a single punch, and she wasn't going to degrade herself by punching a cowering flunky. "Mister Jeong, as of this moment, you are under arrest for multiple sentients' rights violations, failure to report a new species, failure to follow first contact protocols, more than one hundred fifty counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and I don't know what else but I am going to hit you with the book and see what sticks. Garrus, cuff this idiot and then keep an eye on him, I want him alive for later questioning, and in as few pieces as possible. As for the rest of you, any and all security personnel are now under my jurisdiction. Failure to comply means you will receive a warning shot to the leg. From a shotgun. Carried by the krogan."

She paused to let all the security personnel look at the gargantuan claymore shotgun in Wrex's hands and then at his massive grin. They then shared a look between them all, before they wisely decided that the three Spectres, ranging in mood from Icivia's annoyed to Joannis' angry to Jaclyn's abso-fucking-lutely livid, were in charge and dying horribly to the local plant monsters was likely to be less painful than irritating the Spectres further. Joannis quickly continued. "All Exogeni employees, you are ordered to step away from your terminals and omnitools, turn over all passwords and logins to myself or my associates, and refrain from tampering with any equipment. Failure to comply will result in being named a willing accomplice to any and all charges that are being given to Mister Jeong there, as well as destruction of evidence and the conspiracy therefore of. Compliance will result in the reduction of charges brought against you, if not outright amnesty. Lizbeth and Juliana Baynham, please step to one side, I have questions for you two. NOW."

Once she got the two scientists to one side, Joannis quickly changed her tone. "Thank you for your cooperation. And I need your help. If the Thorian really is unique, sentient and sapient like your research claims, we need to try and contact it, preferably without pissing it off. But first, the former Spectre Saren. Do either of you know what he was doing here?"

The older woman shook her head, but Lizbeth nodded. "Turian with a cybernetic arm? Yes, he came into my lab almost a week ago. I think. I sort of lost track of how long I was in the basement area. But he asked some questions about the Thorian, then the local executives left with him to take him to it."

"Was he alone?"

"No, he had… I think a half dozen asari, two krogan, and four turians? Only two asari followed him into the lab, the others stayed out in the hall. Either way, he was only there for a couple minutes. In the lab. I know he was on the planet for nearly a full day. A full local day, I mean."

Joannis nodded, and gestured to a nearby chair as she spotted the young woman swaying on her feet. "Take a seat if you need to. What was he looking for?"

Lizbeth took the chair gratefully, before replying. "Samples, I think. He was asking about how old it was, and how prevalent it was throughout the planet. The answers were old and extremely. The Thorian is at least fifty thousand years old at the absolute minimum, and my tests showed that its spores were noted in several widely spaced locations on the planet. It is probably what is providing the breathable atmosphere on Feros."

Joannis nodded. "And what else do you know about the Thorian?"

"Well, crews found it after clearing some rubble in the colonists tower, and began exploring down. After a couple days, they called us and talked about a massive plant appearing in a large room above a deep void in the structure, and requested our help in determining what it was. The initial response teams took the samples I was examining, as well as several air samples, and left some monitoring devices. The sample teams advised avoiding the area where the Thorian was, but the monitoring devices kept picking up footsteps, so apparently the colonists didn't listen. The teams reported the node they found was about the size of a hovervan, and my tests on the samples showed that the creature became more intelligent the more material it gathered or grew. So the node they saw would be probably about as smart as a dolphin or a young child."

Joannis frowned before slowly nodding. "So smart enough to bargain with. How long between finding the Thorian and Saren arriving?"

"About two months, and five weeks after the colonists were all fully controlled by the Thorian. Sort of like fungus back on Earth that takes over insects, but far more insidious. The company installed health monitoring systems on all the colonists omnitools, running in the background where they can't access it. It noticed a build up on the spores in the colonists' bodies, and sudden pain spikes after the spores reached a certain threshold. Likely the Thorian was using pain and pleasure feedback to control them. We also noticed a significant spike of gamma brain waves during the first week or two of being controlled, though what they were for or in response to, we aren't sure."

Joannis nodded, ignoring the sounds of her sister yelling at the guards to suit up, before asking her last question. "So how do we stop the colonists from helping the Thorian?"

Lizbeth looked at her mother, who smirked. "That I can help with, as I was involved with the lab that was doing deep analysis on the spores. There are two ways you can disrupt the spores. The first is a combination of aerosolized pesticides, which renders the spores inert after inhalation. The second is to use an aerosolized sedative, like the AX-12 gas."

Joannis allowed a bemused smile to cross her face. "The Knock Down gas? Standard military response to terrorist attacks or widespread civilian rioting? Yeah, our frigate isn't armed with dispersal devices equipped with the gas."

Juliana blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Due to our rapid deployment to get to Eden Prime, which was already an accelerated deployment, we were unable to fully equip the ship before leaving. Since then, we have had our allotment of AX-12 missiles misplaced once, reassigned twice, and sent to the wrong destination once. We were actually on our way to picking up some when we got your distress call. Do you have some of those pesticides you mentioned on hand?"

The mother Baynham nodded as she rubbed her forehead. "Yes, give me about ten minutes, me and my daughter should be able to make a few dozen doses. We store some of our supplies out here that we can use, otherwise we would have to trek back to the Exogeni tower. They won't be as effective, since you will have to convert some grenades to dispersal devices, but you should be able to make it work."

Joannis handed the scientists a dozen grenades to modify, before turning and heading to her Twin. "Feeling better? Now that you have punched someone."

"Yes, actually. Now if only Arlas would answer his omnitool, we might be able to figure out what he was doing. Ashley is pulling back to Phalanx Company's location, and will meet us there."

"Nothing new from him?"

"Not since he reported being surrounded, right before we came down here."

The two exchanged a look, before sharing a grin. Jaclyn spoke first. "Fifty on him being captured."

"With you two hundred in the hole, you need a win. And since most of his good equipment is destroyed or otherwise not on him, I would call that a fairly good bet on your part. However, in the interests of keeping your morale above the level of your boots, I accept. Though if you get to two fifty in the hole, you have to pay up."

Joannis grinned at her Twin's grumbling, before nudging her and nodding to the stairs down. "Game face, time to deal with the local goons and loons."

* * *

Arlas woke up with a fierce headache, and the first thing he did was start cursing himself. Clearly he had been getting complacent, and only fortune had kept him from ending up trapped in his spirit stone so far. The obvious solution was to have a serious sit down and ensure he wasn't falling to his own hubris, but that was going to have to wait until he got back to the ship. As his awareness returned with the rest of his senses, he started taking stock of his situation.

He was being hauled somewhere, two hands on each arm, and his feet dragging across the stones behind him. His fusion gun and death spinner were both still on his back, the creatures apparently unable to rip the weapons out of their holders after he had locked them, but he could see another Crested plant monster carrying his sword and flamer pistol. He refrained from sighing in vexation at the sight of someone else carrying his weapons. Clearly, the biolocks on his weapons needed some tweaking, or the plants lacked enough a psychic presence to activate them. Letting his head roll loosely around allowed him to see a trio of Creepers following behind him, and a succubus in front of him.

Despite the pain in his head from the impact and the pains throughout his body from the roll down the stairs, he wasted a moment admitting the asari plant had very nice legs, before realizing he was getting distracted. Before he could do anything, the group suddenly stopped, and he could see a large hole in the floor beyond the Succubus. A few seconds later, and the unusual psyker emenations were now loud enough for him to conclude that they were near the source, as the Succubus turned toward him, and pulled his head up.

At first, Arlas thought they were aware that he was conscious, but the Succubus began poking and prodding at the bottom of his helmet. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize the plant was trying to disengage his helmet for some reason, but eldar helmets didn't work like that. The Succubus' efforts did let him observe her, and realize that whatever was causing the psyker signal was causing his bones to vibrate.

The first thing he noticed was the Succubus' eyes. He had expected them to be solid black, lacking the spark of life and intelligence, and possessing only primal cunning and vicious malice like a Tyranid synapse creature. While they were nearly a solid black, he quickly realized that they were not lacking in individual intelligence. The Succubus was clearly acting in a methodical manner as it tried to collapse his helmet, carefully examining the bottom of his ghosthelm for the release, a tiny, slowly growing frown of concentration on its face as it continued to try and unmask him.

The second thing he noticed was the plant behind the Succubus, quickly driving other thoughts from his mind as he observed its massive bulk. He was not sure what, exactly, he was looking at it, but it looked like a disgusting, disturbing blend of flesh and plant, tendons and muscles seamlessly blending into the thick plant fibers that grew in all directions, but even he could tell the growths were directed, though they wove and entwined randomly. Dozens of tendrils, as thick as his chest, several significantly thicker, grew into the walls, ceiling and floor, anchoring the massive hybrid, and even as he watched another tendril began to slowly grow toward a column to his right.

He quickly returned to the immediate problem of the plant asari trying to remove his helmet when she, and he was close enough to notice there was no doubt as to the gender, stepped away from him and released her hold on his helmet, eyes narrow and her lips pursed. He allowed his head to drop, before sending out a thin tendril of psyker energies, seeing if he could connect directly with the Succubus. Instead, his probe bumped right into the psyker energy field he could sense shifting around the room, and it was immediately grabbed.

Arlas had a fraction of a second to react to the sudden contact, and could make the choice to let the energies disperse, preventing the source of the psyker energies from contacting him. Or he could leave the tendril as it was, thin, easily snapped, but able to allow communication. Or he could strengthen it, and allow a more complex conversation.

He did the sensible thing, and kept the tendril thin. He was captured, so he was going to have to make contact with this source of psyker energies at some point, and if he waited too much longer, the plants might decide damaging or breaking his helmet was acceptable.

The first thing that always happened was disorientation as one's mind made contact with something fundamentally different from its own, and he had to catch himself as the Crested holding him up suddenly staggered. He stumbled into the Succubus, who easily took the impact without swaying. He stepped back, opening distance to the plant asari, and heard the Crested and Creepers behind him slowly regaining their feet. But the creature hanging in front of him responded before he did, which showed impressive psychic stamina, to recover from the shock of psychic contact so quickly. Even the eldar required a few seconds, and this thing had taken less than that, even if the first message was a jumbled mess.

*… _K &ab%d'[th^#e9? …_*

He frowned at the bitter and biting taste of _Hilksk_ fruit suddenly in his mouth, meaning that the creature was not actually communicating with him yet, despite getting something across. A common problem, solved by more exposure to the other psyker. Once their minds had found some form of link, which could take anywhere from a second to several years, they could communicate. He privately hoped it was on the shorter side of the time requirements, and added some more energy to the psyker tendril that linked their minds.

* _I am Arlas, Pathfinder of the eldar Craftworld Ae'Imedra. Who, or what, are you?_ *

This time the creatures response was somewhat understandable, and included the sound of water and a feeling of pressure on his left arm. * _Orleth… Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn… Nyarla… thotep…_ *

It took another ten minutes of both parties sending to each other before Arlas finally got a message that he actually understood and lacked a physical response from his body, though he suspected something had been lost in translation. * _My hovercraft is full of salt water limbless aquatic reptiles. And I am a fruit in search of a smooth blade and some sweet seeds._ *

Or the creature might just be as crazy as a jackaloo, he admitted to himself after a pause of reflection. He was just about to cut the link and take his chances fighting out through the guards when he got one last message. * _Remove… helmet… speak… direct…_ *

Arlas frowned, and let his frown deepen as the creature broke off the psychic contact. He blinked and this time stayed upright instead of trying to pitch himself down the bottomless pit only a few paces in front of him. A quick look around showed his situation had changed, though for better or worse he wasn't sure. The Crested had vanished, and only a handful of Creepers were visible, scattered near the only door he could see. The problem was there were a half dozen Succubi around him now, one holding his sword, another his flamer pistol, and all six were watching him like a predator pack would watch an interloper.

Then a watery gagging or choking noise from the hanging plant creature thing in the center of the room, which he swore was larger than before he had contacted it, drew his eyes back to it. As he watched, a limb slowly descended from the… mouth of the creature, and Arlas suddenly realized that the various holes and depressions made up a face. Though it was a hideous and deformed face, best viewed at a distance and an angle, while squinting and focusing on something else. It also looked vaguely familiar for some reason, like he had seen something similar to this a long time ago, at a distance, in bad lighting and had only gotten a brief partial view of it. After a moment of trying to bring the memory into focus, he suddenly realized the limb he had seen sprouting from the mouth was dangling in front of him.

He examined the limb, observing the fluids slowly dripping from the lower lip, reminding him of a blood sucker's mouth without teeth, the entire limb looking more muscle than plant, a stark contrast to the hybrid makeup of the rest of the creature. He grabbed the edge of the dangling limb, and flipped it so he could look down it, and immediately regretted his decision. It was a dripping mess of mucus and muscles and tendons and small feelers, all pulsing and waving. It made the limb look more like a mouth than anything else about it.

One of the Succubus suddenly spoke. "The Old Growth commanded you to put it on. Do so. It desires to converse with you, to learn of you, to learn… You."

He turned and gave the asari plant monster a glare that should have turned it into kindling if there was any justice in the universe, but it just stared back. He could feel his dangersense whispering to him, its volume rising with every second, slowly but as surely as time itself. Even as he stared, one of the Succubi in his peripheral vision ignited its hand with biotic power, and the one on the other side holding his sword shifted it to a combat stance. Very different from the ones he knew or had fought against, likely an asari or Crested combat stance.

However, he realized he was in no position to fight this fight, especially since one of them had his flamer pistol. And while he was loath to remove his helmet, especially with the spores around, the other choice was likely death or dismemberment. So he collapsed the heavily customized helmet's faceplate, the only part that could collapse, and grabbed the orifice tendril. He let himself shudder once in revulsion, before slipping it over his head. He was immediately glad he kept his sensitive ears covered, as the feelers, mucus and muscles collapsed around him, encasing his exposed flesh, but oddly not impeding his ability to breath.

As the limb finished settling, he instantly felt something brushing against his mind, siphoning memories from it with a speed that would have shocked a veteran Farseer, let alone an indifferently trained Pathfinder. That it also breezed past his mental defenses without even breaking its mental 'stride' just made his fear that much more acute.

It saw **everything**.

Everything that he knew, everything he remembered. Everything that made him Arlas. All the little mistakes, all the great failures. The few triumphs, and the dark, well hidden secrets that had finally driven him to travel the Path of the Outcast. And his own, personal Great Shame, known to almost every eldar of the Craftworld that had met him or knew someone that had met him, which was why he was sent on this suicide mission, a male from a craftworld that had more than twice as many women as men. Thankfully, Arlas could also sense that it lacked context for a lot of what it sensed, and only got the memories, not the emotions that were usually attached to them. While it knew of his many issues, it didn't know they were issues or why, only that they were remembered.

Most importantly, however, the damn plant finally had a point of reference to communicate with him.

* _I H'aaztre. You first… mind found. Greetings. Travelled far have … meet to._ *

Arlas felt shock ripple through his mind, realizing this creature was trying to follow a first contact protocol. Or maybe it was just blindly copying the one the humans gave him back on Eden Prime. He quickly reviewed his own first contact protocols, before coming to the unfortunate conclusion that 'leave it to the Farseers' was not an acceptable solution.

* _I am Arlas, of the eldar race, from the Craftworld Ae'Imedra. It is an important event, meeting your kind for the first time, and I hope there will be many fruitful exchanges of thoughts and of information with you and your kind._ *

He could feel excitement coming off the creature, and idly wished it would remove the… mouth orifice limb thing from his head, so he could get his helmet back on. He suddenly groaned realizing he was going to be taking a very long shower back on the _Normandy_ to get all the slime out of his hair, and could only imagine how the mon-keigh would react to him having to use their public showers. And that was before he included the plant creature sending pleasure or even less understandable messages.

And despite everything else going on, Arlas couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something. Something important…

* * *

"Wrex, pull back! Armatures advancing. Garrus, Ashley, put down those fragging snipers and rocket troopers!. Kaidan, Liara, that Prime is your primary target. Destroy it or chunk it over the edge, don't care which, get it gone."

Jaclyn cursed the decision to push up the vehicle causeway back toward the colony. But Phalanx Company had managed to push a call through that they had geth trying to get in through the vehicle bay door, and neither of the twins were willing to leave allies in a lurch unless they had to prioritize. Right now, the only priority was dealing with this Thorian creature, but it wasn't going anywhere, and neither were the colonists it had infected. So saving the Phalanx Company mercs was on the way and cost no time.

Ashley was supporting from the vehicle bay with her sniper rifle, Phalanx Company using the rubble from the destroyed door to great effect in keeping the geth back. But the geth had apparently gathered every unit for one last push to get into the colony, resulting in a Prime, two Juggernauts, four Destroyers, nearly a dozen rocket troopers, three dozen geth regulars, seven geth snipers, and four Armatures. The geth mines were preventing the group from advancing quickly, as Kaidan had nearly had his leg blown off by one. they had to carefully advance, giving the geth time to react to their advance.

The rest of the ground team was in scattered cover around the causeway. Easy to defend, but the geth had the same advantage of heavy cover, and had chosen their location well. It was a stalemate, and would continue to be until something changed. She debated a biotic charge, but returning would be an issue; twelve seconds until she could boost back and with that many geth she would count herself fortunate to survive half that. But the problem was the Geth were working together, forming a perfect warmachine that made taking any of them out, even when caught between two forces, an exercise in frustration and failure. Even worse, the causeway was covered where they were fighting, though for some reason the ceiling vaulted up to above the roof of the vehicle bay, so they couldn't even pull back and have the _Normandy_ or the lander bombard the area with lasers or a lower power main cannon shot.

She knew from experience that if they had been fighting anything other than geth, with the equivalent forces, the fight would already be half over, and they had only been fighting for three and a half minutes at this point. So far, casualties included Kaidan, who was limping from a mine, Wrex's armor, which was going to need at least some patches, one of the Phalanx shield bearers was weaponless, and Ashley had reported a cracked helmet from a deflected sniper round. On the geth's side, they were down a sniper geth, and two of the troopers had minor damage.

She cursed at a sniper as she ducked its attempt to take her head off, before popping back up to throw a couple warps, idly noting the fight was not going well. Her side was committed, otherwise the Geth would just move up and annihilate Phalanx Company and Ashley. Their only saving grace currently was the fact that the cover between where the Geth had dug in and the two lines of cover the organics were using was relatively bare. But eventually they were going to get someone that wasn't watching the right way, or jumped back up at the wrong time, and the momentum would swing back toward the Geth. She needed to find a game changing move, and soon.

* * *

Arlas figured whatever he was forgetting wasn't important. If it was, he wouldn't have forgotten it, and if it was somewhat important, he would remember it eventually. But far more pressing, and interesting, was conversing with the plant monster, which called itself H'aaztre. It wasn't actively hostile or dominating, but it hadn't recognized the other creatures it had encountered as fully sentient and sapient, and had thought them animals. A 'quick' conversation, rife with difficulties, had proven the creature could sense psychic fields, and thought those were a sign of true intelligence. That revelation had made him frown, before asking the obvious question. He showed a mental picture of Saren, including the arrogance and condescension that seemed to be the only emotions the turian had. * _What did this one want?_ *

The reply was mostly images. The plant creature vaguely remembered such an individual, but had been far more interested in the blue bipedal that had touched its mind. Not a true sentient, but it had concluded the blue one had partial sentience. The blue one had negotiated information about the Creators for the animalistic one Arlas hunted, and in return the animalistic one would give the plant creature the blue one and the animals in the metal lairs above. H'aaztre had agreed, eager for something to converse with after so long without anything else, but once it had… the translation had faltered there, Arlas had gotten the impression of merging with something and being wrapped inside something at the same time, but what that meant exactly he had no idea.

It took a couple tries to get the plant to finish its thought, and he learned that there was something wrong with the blue biped, the asari it had acquired. A few more questions to H'aaztre revealed that it had tried to get some of the colonists to come down so it could see if they had the same issue, but none had followed its demands, even when the demands became commands. Then, a short time later, the colonists had suddenly experienced a brief spurt of terror, before many had suddenly vanished from its senses. Curious as to what had happened, it knew those colonists were dead, but it hadn't lost any in the weeks before the Saren and the asari arrived, so it had started dispatching various forms. One was based off the Creators, the ones Arlas called Crested, but the others, the Creepers, were based off an older form, something the plant had known already before the Creators had given it the ability to remember and think for longer than the now. However, growing new forms took time, nearly three days, and the first forms had only been ready for their tasks about an hour or so earlier.

Arlas nodded as they finished, before the plant's attention suddenly slid away. * _What this?_ *

It suddenly linked a different mind with his, and for a moment he struggled to keep himself from merging too deeply with whatever H'aaztre was trying to link with him. He finally succeeded, and then took in the view point.

The first thing he sent back was a suggestion to modify the asari plant simulacrums so the faux chests didn't feature quite so prominently. The next thing he did was focus on the rest of the view, rather than just the lower quarter. The Succubus was standing at least twenty meters above the lower level it was observing, clearly on top of a building. Parts of the lower level were encased in whatever the buildings were made of, but enough sections had collapsed to let him see several different geth platforms engaging several figures. There was enough cover to prevent easy elimination of either side, but he could see fire going between the geth to the figures, but also between the geth and the building.

Arlas tried to get the Succubus to focus on the figures, but apparently the plant asari couldn't 'hear' him. So instead the eldar sighed, and sent his thoughts to the plant creature still encasing his head. * _The closer metal group are geth, they were killing the colonists. The other group are organics, sentient but you can not hear them, they came to protect the colonists._ *

He frowned suddenly, realizing a potential problem in the offing. * _They will see your control as a threat to the colonists. They will demand you release them. If you refuse…_ *

He showed metal ships firing from the sky, burning the megatower down, and then burning the rest of the ruins away. He didn't think they would actually go that far, but they might. The humans tended to react poorly to outsiders that sought to control them, even if it was for their own good. Even if they knew it was for their own good. He let the plant creature see it, before adding there **was** a way to keep them from destroying everything in a crusade to kill it. The plant paused, its alien mind examining the image he had provided, before turning back to him. * _How stop? Burn bad. Long sleep before grow again._ *

Arlas relaxed as he noted that the creature's exposure to him was causing it to become more understandable. Now he just had to calm the thing down, get it pointed at the right opponents rather than everything, and get this limpet thing off his damn head.

 _A/N - And cut! Read, enjoy, favorite, follow, review, and send PMs. Or just read and enjoy. I am not picky._


	23. Desolation and Resolution

**Chapter 22 - Desolation and Resolution**

" _SIIIIINNNNNNNDREEEEEEEE!" - Last word of Warlord Bael, Dawn of War_

Jaclyn cursed under her breath, flinching slightly as another armature siege pulse slammed into the low, large piece of rubble protecting her. She hissed in pain, a pair of bullets had pierced her abdominal armor, not doing much damage but definitely requiring a medbay visit later. Medigel had sealed the hole, and now she was just angry; mostly at herself for letting herself getting hit, but she directed it at the Geth.

At this point she reflected that her sister had been smart about having the Exogeni survivors and guards stay back at their hiding place. They would have been butchered already. Phalanx company had two dead or unconscious, another three were too wounded to keep fighting, Ashley was trying to fire her sniper rifle one handed, Kaidan was unconscious after a too-close rocket explosion and needed medical attention, and Liara had collapsed after trying to block two siege pulses with her barrier rather than let Tali take the hits, though she was barely still conscious. The geth were down an armature, all their rocket troopers, a dozen of their regulars, both juggernauts, three destroyers, and all but two snipers. Unfortunately, that still left them with almost a third of their infantry including a Prime and Destroyer, and three armatures.

She leaned out and blindly fired a barrage from her Hurricane submachine gun, not expecting to do more than maybe force a geth infantry to duck, when she heard something splat, and Garrus swear. "What in the spirits was that?"

"What happened?"

"Something just dropped down onto one of the armatures."

Another splat stopped the conversation, and Jaclyn could hear the geth firing their weapons as fast as they could, but she couldn't see any shots streaking past her. As even more splats were heard, now with a background noise of hissing with occasional wails of binary, she poked her head out. Even as she watched, something dark green and grey fell onto one of the geth troopers, crushing it, and causing whatever was falling to explode from the impact. The geth warbled in distress, as even more streaks plummeted down onto and among the geth.

The armatures couldn't aim up enough to try and hit the descending attacks, whatever they were, but the rest of the geth were desperately firing upwards. Suddenly, one of the armatures collapsed as four more plummeting things hit its shields in sequence, dousing it in fluids. Half a second after the armature had collapsed, every geth still standing suddenly turned toward the garage and charged Phalanx company. Ashley quickly got on the comms, even as she fired at the suddenly charging horde, along with every member of Phalanx still capable of holding a weapon. "Commander, we can't stop that charge!"

Jaclyn forced herself upright, setting herself to biotically charge the Destroyer, when suddenly both surviving armatures suddenly warbled, and began flailing their legs as they drifted upwards. Jaclyn took a quick glance back, and saw that her sister and Liara had somehow managed to lift the two armatures, but that was only going to delay the inevitable, not stop it. She took a deep breath, before roaring an order. "CHARGE."

She biotically charged the remaining Destroyer, as Wrex did the same to the Prime. More acidic things plummeted from above, landing around and behind the Geth, but a warp attack from above attracted her attention for a split second. Jaclyn didn't look up, too busy unloading her scimitar shotgun into the Destroyer's back. The destroyer hit the ground before it could finish turning toward her, and Wrex sounded particularly happy, indicating that he had taken out the Prime. She shoved the choke of her shotgun closed, forcing the pellets to spread less and give her greater accuracy at range, before eviscerating a geth trooper from behind.

Even as she fought, more geth were flattened or splattered with acid from the plummeting things, and she glanced up, before gaping in shock. Dozens of plant monsters were leaping from the building, and a couple female plants watched from above. She could see the side of the tower was covered in plant monsters, crawling down to the roof of the vehicle bay. She cursed, before returning her focus on the fight, though only the two armatures remained. "Tali, drop your drone, ensure you can observe what it can, then everyone move to the hangar bay, bring those that are down. NOW!"

She blurred to the leftmost floating armature, hitting it with a charge, before using nova on it, and then diving out of the way. She read the situation right, as Wrex was right behind her, hitting the same armature with his own charge, before ripping the head stalk off with a discharge of his shotgun. Jaclyn looked at the last floating armature, before smiling evilly at it. "Wrex, wait."

Wrex had been about to charge it, but looked at her curiously. "Why?"

She gave him the same smile, before turning back to the armature and gesturing. "Throw."

Wrex watched the armature suddenly start tumbling toward the edge, and harrumphed as it went over. "Not nearly as fun."

Jaclyn shrugged, before looking up, noticing the dozens of plants staring down at the group, before the plants all turned and began climbing back up the exterior of the megatower. She shrugged to herself, before heading into the vehicle bay. "Jaclyn to Normandy. Come in Joker."

"Normandy here ma'am."

"Can you land the frigate somewhere? We have wounded that need the doctor's attention."

Joker kept his sardonic comments to himself, knowing she was rarely in the mood for them, and a moment later replied. "Sorry ma'am. Closest point we could use as a pick up point is the Exogeni tower's hangar bay."

Jaclyn cursed, before thinking of something. "Contact the eldar's lander, ask his companion to come and pick them up. It can handle the landing, easy."

Joker signed off to have that conversation, while everyone collected in the vehicle bay. She looked around, before frowning. "Where is Lieutenant Michael?"

One of the mercs looked at the others, before shrugging. "Dead ma'am, caught a siege pulse."

Jaclyn swore, before looking at the one that had spoken. "Does that put you in charge of your squad?"

He nodded, a grim frown on his face. "Yes ma'am. Corporal Tenenbaum. Both the sergeants are down, as well as the other corporal."

She looked over the mercs, and nodded to him. "See to your men, corporal, we will be moving out soon. The _Normandy_ will see to your wounded as well."

Joker suddenly pinged her omnitool, and once she opened the communication channel, he gave her some good news. "Lander on its way to you, ma'am. ETA about a minute."

Jaclyn clicked the mike once to let him know she had heard, before closing the channel and going to find her sister. They needed to plan an assault.

* * *

Joannis waited as the elevator door opened. Wrex and Jaclyn were at the front, with Tali and Icivia just behind them, all with shotguns ready. Joannis and Garrus were behind them, ready to provide support after pushing out of the elevator, but first they had to get out. However, after a few seconds of silence, the first four moved out, Jaclyn on the comm channel. "No contacts. Stairs down toward colony are clear."

Wrex poked his head into the passage leading to the tunnels deeper into the megatower. "Nothing here."

Icivia and Tali checked the room that the Geth had been dropping troops into, and after a moment Icivia reported. "No hostiles present. Returning to group."

Joannis shared a look with Garrus, before Garrus set up at the stairs with his assault rifle. It was two stories down to the colony landing, and they wanted all the power they could muster for pushing in. Phalanx Company was coming up the elevator behind them, but the group had agreed to press until contact, and then back up. Phalanx was going to hold the elevator landing, give them _Normandy_ team a place to fall back to if they needed it. If it got so bad they needed to fall back further, then the plan was to blast open the elevator doors beside the working one, and slide down the cables to blast the doors open on the vehicle bay level.

Joannis sighed, unhappy with the plan, but the other plan was having the _Normandy_ try to snipe the turrets with its own lasers, and while the turrets might not be the most powerful on the market, they were one of the faster firing and better cooled ones. While it was unlikely they would take out the _Normandy_ , they would do significant damage to the ship before the _Normandy_ could destroy them. And while Arlas' lander might have been able to, the sheer power of the eldar ship's shots would cause extreme collateral damage.

She shook her head, and refocused as Garrus, taking point with his sniper rifle, spoke on the comms. "Commander. Single asari at the entrance. Wait, that is a plant monster. Looks like a naked asari. What did Williams name them?"

"Succubus. Succubi in groups."

"…Weird. One succubus at the entrance, just staring at me, no other plant monsters nearby. Can't see much of the colony from my current location, just a few meters. Orders?"

Joannis grabbed her twin's shoulder, preventing her from responding immediately, and had a quick, wordless debate with her that took all of a second. Joannis won, she usually did, and responded. "On my way to you. Keep an eye out, but don't attack unless it makes undeniably hostile moves. I will make contact."

Garrus didn't reply on the comms, but Wrex grumbled about being denied a good fight again as she passed him. She just raised an eyebrow inside her visor and gave his armor a significant look, noting the holes the geth had put in it, before continuing onward without a word. She paused by Garrus, examining the asari plant monster, idly realizing that Ashley had named them correctly. Tight muscles, generous curves, medium heeled boots and nothing else, this asari was built to distract. Garrus spoke quietly, sniper rifle never wavering from the ambulatory plant's head. "Commander, you sure about this?"

She sighed, before deliberately nodding. "No, but we need to know what Saren was doing here. He came here for something, and vanished for several hours under the colony according to the logs we found at Exogeni. The Thorian was is the only thing there, and it controls the plants. Therefore, we need to..."

Joannis paused, suddenly realizing how crazy what she was about to say sounded but said it anyway. "Talk to… the plants. Dammit."

Garrus issued a soft whistling noise, the turian's version of laughing. "Not something a sane person expects to say, much less seriously."

She sighed, before walking down the stairs, deliberately putting her Carnifex pistol away before approaching the asari facsimile. She simply met the dark orbs that the plant used for eyes, but idly noticed several blue bulbs hidden under the fibers, visible only when the plant shifted. Looking closer, she realized the plant had a bulb located in the center of every 'muscle' group, as well as another at each joint, in addition to the large one inside the plant's 'head.' She dismissed her observation, noting it wasn't important to the current situation, and turned her attention back to the plant as she activated her external speakers. "Can you understand me?"

The plant woman stared back for a moment, before slowly its head moved in a nod. Joannis felt her eyebrows rise in response, but contained her shock. "Are you or the other… plants going to attack me?"

This time the plant paused longer, before shaking its head. She frowned, wondering if it was a problem of understanding, or if the plant had just lied. Either way, it would lead to the same goal. "Are you to take us to the Thorian?"

This time the plant didn't move. Joannis frowned, before trying again. "Are you to lead us to the intelligence below the colony?"

This time the plant woman nodded immediately, before turning and walking into the colony. She sighed, ignoring the callipygian spectacle in front of her, calling the rest of the squad. "The Succubus is a guide, it is taking us to the Thorian. Follow it in, keep your eyes open and weapons out, but keep them pointed down. If it is a hostile, we have enough firepower on us to take care of it. Wrex, center of the line, you have the big bombs now, so you have to get to the plant. We can't talk it down, you put it down."

Done issuing orders, she set off after the plant woman, ignoring the private comm channel her twin sister opened, her twin's singing taunting her. "Follow the ass, follow the ass, follow the ass, follow the ass…"

It sucked sometimes, having someone that knew your mind almost as well as you did. But at least she was nice enough to keep it private. Otherwise she would have to drag Jaclyn into the sparring ring again for another 'discipline' bout. But it **was** a nice view…

* * *

Icivia frowned as the group moved through the colony. There were Creepers everywhere and Crested in front of each closed door; though only half had weapons, all of geth make. No colonists, and while the group were being watched, clearly surrounded and outnumbered, they weren't attacked. It was unnerving, how every plant monster would track them as they moved through the colony, toward the disassembled freighter in the middle of the colony. She glanced at the Twins' wondering about their choice, but she was just here to monitor them, and critique them afterwards. So far, there had been only minor things on the previous missions, but this mission was going to take **hours** to go over. It was the kind of mission Spectres both detested and loved; complex, fluid, shifting, murky, and vicious, it was missions like this that had lured her into the Spectre Corps.

The geth problem had been straightforward, just damned hard, though she would only admit to herself that the Eldar had simplified the problem greatly. Wiping out a dropship in the hangar had caused problems, yes, but it had solved three extremely big ones, killing geth ground units, killing geth dropships, and preventing further attacks. Then they had gotten to the Exogeni Tower, and the situation had gone both fluid and murky. Now, there were illegal corporate experiments and actions, initiating an official first contact with a mind controlling plant creature, and the geth were still a problem. Then they had wiped out the geth, with the plants helping wipe out the geth, and now the situation was just murky and complex, with a bit of shifting. It would really depend on the Thorian now. Oh, and that damned eldar, of course, wherever he had gotten to. They hadn't heard anything from him in nearly half an hour now.

As the group approached the stairs in the middle of the colony, which weren't on any plans she had seen of the colony, either, she took another look around. Just Creepers and Crested, with the rare Succubi standing about. All of them watching the group. She couldn't help but notice that the controls for the crane had been smashed, leaving the crane stuck in the up position. She frowned at the sight, debating if it was an act of arrogance, trust, or defiance, and by who. After a second, she turned her attention back to the hole; it didn't matter, all that did was finishing this mission and getting to the debrief with the information about the Barefaced Bastard Traitor.

She frowned at the plant monster leading them, it had stopped at the edge of the hole, and pointed down. At the bottom of the stairs, another Succubus waited, and once the group got halfway down the stairs, it started moving. Apparently they were being led in relay. Or the plant creatures were being controlled by the Thorian, and it didn't care about which specific plant clone led the group to it.

She frowned, worried she might be overthinking it, before glancing at the Succubus they had just left, still standing at the edge of the hole down, then glancing over the railing at the one leading them. Wrex suddenly spoke on squad channel. "Seeing something you like, turian?"

Icivia rolled her eyes in the privacy of the helmet. Everyone was still fully sealed, orders from both Twins and she agreed, but she had forgotten krogan could see in a two seventy arc, and certain individuals, like wrex, could see slightly further. "Trying to see if these things are mass produced, or individuals. If mass produced, they will likely all have the same abilities. If individuals, they will likely not work as well together."

Wrex grunted. "Doesn't matter, everything burns. Even this Thorian, especially if it is only the size of a hovervan. Got a few cans of _Xiuhzuma_ , Fire's Wrath in human tongue. That stuff will burn through a cruiser's hull in a vacuum."

Everyone in the party paused before turning to him, causing him to cough suddenly. "Uh, or so I have heard. Don't ask me how I know that."

They group all shared glances, but no one was brave enough to ask the obvious question, so they quickly resumed descending. After a moment, Wrex continued, as they followed the Succubus down a hall. "But yeah, carry that stuff with me wherever I go, except the Citadel. C-Sec kept taking it and whining about 'safety regulations.'"

Garrus snorted. "Wrex, as you said, that stuff can melt a cruiser's hull. And it is impossible to put out before it burns itself out."

"Exactly, fun stuff. Great for parties."

"The kind of parties that C-Sec spends more time on clean up than investigation, maybe."

"Bah, you are just lazy, Princess. Anyway, I got a few cans of Wrath, and that will… that will… that… huh."

Wrex was near the front of the group, and slowly stopped talking, his head slowly rearing back to stare up at something. The rest of the group filed in, and Icivia entered the room last having been rearguard, she heard both twins speaking at the same time. "Well that's just great." "That… is a plant?"

As she stepped into the room, her gaze slowly climbing the plant, Wrex got his voice back. "...that will not be enough. Wow, three cans of _Xiuhzuma_ might actually not be enough. I do believe that is the first time that sentence has ever been uttered. Well, time to start carrying four. Size of a hovervan, my scaled ASS!"

Garrus sighed. "Spirits save me. Wrex, that is four more cans than is legal in some **Terminus** systems! The **entire** system, not just per person."

Icivia sighed and used her omnitool to mute both males from her headset, before turning to the Twins. "Do we have enough ammo and a plan for… that?"

She looked around the room, noting the thing was as big as a corvette, at least fifty meters tall, and twenty meters deep and wide, and that was just counting the main 'body.' There were dozens upon dozens of 'roots' reaching out to the walls, firmly anchoring the monstrous plant. After a minute of staring at it, she suddenly frowned, and activated her external speakers. "Arlas, are you alive?"

From somewhere above them, they heard a familiar voice. "No. Now hurry up and deal with this thing, so I can go get clean."

* * *

Arlas immediately realized that the last sentence could have been better worded, and spoke quickly. "And if any one feels the urge to be witty, I will simply remind you I am fully capable of cloaking, burning through the hull of the starship with my mind or my fusion gun, and that I am a sniper by trade and preference."

He jumped down for the upper area where he had been waiting for the team, desperately trying to ignore the feeling of the mucus from the Thorian's merging tendril sliding down his scalp. He had stripped as much mucus off as he could, but a third of an hour conversing with the plant had given it plenty of time to utterly drench him. Now, he just wanted to get back to the ship, get a shower, and then something to eat, and not deal with overly eager, but surprisingly slow on understanding, psychic plants. He glanced back at the plant as it started to make retching noises, and saw the 'mouth' of the plant frantically moving before deciding to make haste. "I am heading back to the ship. Inform me when the situation is resolved, I need to recover my attack craft."

He stalked out of the room, still trying to strip mucus from his hair, idly reflecting that the rangers that cut theirs might have had a good idea after all. But longer hair was a status symbol back on the Craftworld, and he had few things to try and improve his standings among his kin, so he had to use what few methods he could. He heard something splat behind him, and as he got to the stairs, he heard someone begin talking. "I speak for the Old Growth. The One of Fluid Thought has said you are here to bargain. Like the Mindless One before…"

He got out of range of even his exceptional hearing, though the mucus in his ears meant he wasn't as good at hearing as he could be. He reached out to Yol'Pvera, let her know he needed pick up at the room the geth dropship had been dropping troops in, not the bay. A couple minutes later he stepped out into the weak daylight of the planet, and took a deep breath before looking around. Only a few of the plant puppets were around, a handful of Crested and a Succubus using biotics to remove debris around the colony, though he couldn't see any of the Creepers around the colony. Most of the colonists were still hiding in their buildings, but he could see a handful moving around.

With a sigh, he turned from his path, and sent a thought and what he was seeing to Yol'Pvera. * _Might be delayed a bit, local mon-keigh are poking the Vyper wreckage with sticks._ *

He got a feeling of disgust back. * _You lost the Vyper?_ *

He winced, but before he could defend his actions, she cut the mental link with a snort of disgust. With a mental shrug, he finished his approach to the downed Vyper and the trio examining it. "Avoid disturbing the wreckage, lest you destabilize something."

All three colonists jumped, quickly straightening and turning toward the Eldar, but he was already turning away, spotting someone walking toward him. "Fai Dan, I believe?"

The colony leader nodded. "Yes, I saw you heading to your craft, and wanted to apologize for the damage done to it."

He glanced at the craft as the human male babbled on, noting the extensive damages, before taking a deep but subtle breath. It was an effect of collateral misfortunes, and screaming about it would only worsen the effect. "Fai Dan, I understand the Thorian was responsible, not your people. However, the power systems of the craft are damaged, but still providing power. Tampering with it may cause further damage to the system, with catastrophic results. I will remove it as soon as you ensure the defenses aren't going to shoot down my other ship."

That got the response he needed; Fai Dan nodded. "We did that as soon as the plant stopped using pain to control us."

The human twitched slightly and gestured for the others to go, before taking a quick look around and speaking softly. "Are the commanders going to kill the Thorian?"

He noted that the leader hadn't actually put any emotions into the words, but Arlas did notice a few drops of sweat rolling down the sides of his head. He let himself give a grim smile, idly curious if the plant was smarter than he had thought. "That is up to them and the Thorian. But from what I know of them, they consider such an outcome undesirous."

He watched the human twitch again, before the eldar nodded to him. "If you will excuse me, Fai Dan, I will get my other craft here to remove this wreckage."

He sent Yol'Pvera a thought, letting her know about the change of the pickup location, as well as the fact they would be gathering the Vyper wreckage. It took nearly half an hour to get the wreckage into the troop bay of the lander, using the interior gravity tethers and his own strength to eldar-handle the wreckage into it, and by then the commanders had returned, leading the rest of the ground team, as well as a mostly naked asari and plant asari. Deciding he didn't want to know, he simply boarded the lander, and activated his omnitool. "Anyone else for the ship?"

* * *

Arlas felt much more like living and less like killing everything around him, having finally gotten that shower he needed. Sadly, it had also earned him a lecture on ship resources, as not everyone could use the showers for twenty minutes and still have hot water for everything else. Everyone apparently had a five minute shower limit for hot water, or ten minutes for heated water. Water and heat were of the few luxuries allowed on the eldar vessels regardless of size, and some of the few luxuries allowed overall, so it had been dismaying to learn he would have to reduce his shower lengths. Especially since five minutes would be just enough to get started.

It took them another six hours after finishing on the planet to leave, mostly due to the Phalanx Company wounded having to be transferred back down to the planet. They had been hired to do a job, and hadn't yet completed it. Doctor Chakwas had treated the worst of their wounds, now all the wounded needed was rest, easy enough to do while yelling at colonists. The _Normandy's_ own casualties had been fairly light, though a couple were going to be down for a week. Ashley in particular had been hurt badly, the geth round had shattered the ball of her left shoulder, and would be spending the entire trip back to the Citadel in the medical bay getting that shoulder repaired. Kaidan was still unconscious, and his armor would need replacing, but Liara had already been released; she had simply overstrained her biotics trying to block armature siege pulses. Jaclyn was currently at the doctor's tender mercies however, and finding her unamused to learn she had been fighting with a half dozen bullets in her gut rather than pulling back with the other wounded.

Arlas spent the time salvaging what he could from the destroyed Vyper, which was almost nothing. Everything was either badly damaged, or outright destroyed, only the wraithseed that made the core of the vehicle intact, and even that felt like it had suffered a couple of cracks. It would take a wraithbone singer to repair that, and he didn't have the skills. Even the shuriken cannon, slung under the vehicle, was badly damaged, the entire barrel warped by the last impact with the ground. Both starcannons were half melted, the turret fused solid, the main power plant of the Vyper was shrapnel and debris. He was tempted to yank out the seed core, but was concerned that the pieces of vehicle surrounding the seed might be all that was keeping it intact. So for now, he had it set into the corner of the _Normandy's_ hangar, until he had the time to deal with it.

Despite the relief fleet being nearly four and a half days out at this point, they were already burning hard for an FTL point. Arlas guessed it was due to the small frigate having done what it could, and now the larger and more heavily stocked and manned ships would be able to deal with the rest of the colony's problems. As for him, he was working on his bladework again, learning the two new blades as best he could in the tiny time he had before the tournament. They would make the tournament, or so Lioness had assured him, so he did not concern himself about it. Either they would, or they wouldn't, he had done everything he could to ensure that he made it, so now he simply would ensure he was as prepared as possible.

Several hours later, Lioness came over the loudspeaker. "All ground crew cleared by medical, report for debrief."

Arlas paused his exercises, and sheathed both the power sword and the chain blade, having been experimenting with a dual blade technique he had seen a handful of striking scorpion and howling banshee exarchs use. Rather than returning the two blades to the lander, he headed for the elevator with them, pulling his body suit back up and putting on his plain grey tabard. A few minutes later, he stepped into the briefing room, and leaned against the wall. For once, he wasn't the last to arrive, as Liara was still missing. While he waited, he idly leaned against the light fixture nearest the door, checking the recording crystal he had hidden there back during the second meeting in it that he had attended, before straightening again.

Five minutes later, Liara rushed in, her crests still wet and uniform clinging to her. "Sorry I am late, I had just gotten in the shower."

Liara took her seat and then stared at Lioness for a moment. "Commander? You look… pale. Well, paler than normal. Are you suffering any ill effects from the Cipher?"

Arlas looked up, an eyebrow elegantly raised at the mention of 'The Cipher,' curious as to what that was. Joannis shook her head. "I am fine, mostly. Just a cotton stuffed in head kind of sensation. A bit shaken, maybe, but not stirred."

She paused, and looked around the room, before sighing. "Nevermind, was trying to make a joke. I am mostly fine."

Liara hesitated a moment, glancing at Tali next to her before speaking. "I… might be able to help you. I am an expert on the Protheans, and that is why I am here. If I meld with you, maybe together we can make some logic of the Cipher."

Joannis nodded immediately, standing and moving toward her. "Go ahead. We may have less time than we think."

Liara nodded, standing in front of the Commander in the center of the room, and her voice took on a soft, almost ethereal quality to it. "Relax commander, and embrace eternity!"

Arlas watched with interest as the asari did whatever she was doing with the human, idly noting the flickers of biotic aura around the asari, with the tiniest flames of white, coming from around her eyes which had gone solid black. The two stood together, the asari's hands positioned around the commander's head, not quite touching her. After a couple minutes, Liara suddenly staggered back, and Tali was suddenly up and behind her, holding her up. "Liara, are you well?"

"Yes, that was… that was incredible. All this time, research… I never…"

She paused, clearly rallying herself, before shaking her head. "Apologies, Commander. The images were so… vivid, like I was there. I never… thought the experience would be so intense."

Joannis and Tali helped Liara to her seat, before taking their own, though the asari almost didn't seem to notice. "That was… almost overwhelming. You are remarkably strong willed, Commander. What you saw, and experienced not just with the Cipher, but also the beacon… Each of those would have destroyed a lesser mind."

Arlas snorted quietly, idly curious as to what they were going on about. Garrus spoke up. "Well, don't keep us all in suspense, what did you see? The commander tried to describe it to me once, but said it was mostly nonsense."

Liara nodded. "That was because she lacked a reference to understand what she was seeing. That is what the Cipher gave her, the understanding of a Prothean, what it means, feels like to be one. But the beacon on Eden Prime didn't give her the full message. Significant parts are missing, and the data transferred was likely incomplete."

Arlas shrugged. "Oops. The other choice was letting it explode."

Joannis gave him a small nod, before turning back to Liara. "Better than having it explode in my face. Doctor, please continue. There must have been something useful."

Liara regretfully shook her head. "Everything I saw you already knew. Protheans being destroyed by sentient synthetic lifeforms. Machines. Clearly there must be a connection between the Reapers, the Prothean extinction, and the Conduit that Saren is looking for. But your message didn't contain that. Perhaps we can check with the Prothean Archive Division on the Citadel, and see if they have repaired the beacon. The Beacon may contain the full message the… "

Liara abruptly swooned, before shaking her head. "Apologies, the merge drained me more than I anticipated. I believe I should go and lie down for a while."

Joannis stared at her for a moment, before nodding. "Alright, report to medical. Have Doctor Chakwas look you over before you go get some sleep. Tali, can you go with her? After she gets to medical, you are off duty until your next shift."

Tali and Liara left, leaving the eldar with the human, krogan and both turians. Joannis turned to him. "Arlas, what happened after you got into the hole? You were remarkably light on details before leaving."

Arlas sighed, before shrugging and… 'sanitizing' his report slightly. "As I said, I made my way into the tower, and found a second staircase that took me below the Thorian. Or H'aaztre, as it calls itself. Found a level full of plant life, and tried to backtrack when I got cut off by two Crested. Entered a room to avoid being shot, and then had the roof fall on me as the Creepers disemboweled themselves to destroy the floor. Fought for about fifteen seconds, before one of the Succubi hit me with a stasis, and then they surrounded me.

"Once the stasis wore off, they demanded I come to the Thorian, and lacking better options, being surrounded by at least three Creepers, two Crested, and two Succubi, I agreed. The group escorted me to the Thorian, where I was directly linked to the creature by way of a melding limb it produced. It took some time, but eventually I was able to form a point of reference with the creature, and we began to converse."

He noted all four of the other occupants were looking very interested. "Most of it was trying to convince the plant that non-psykers weren't just animals, something that took a significant portion of time. The other information was that the Crested were its version of creatures it called the Creators. It showed that they didn't actually create it, but did do something to awaken and enhance its intelligence. The Creepers were based on something even older than the Crested, but it didn't have any clear memories to show me, only vague impressions of them."

He did allow himself to frown, abruptly wondering how the Thorian had managed to form a point of reference with him. They literally had nothing in common other than being alive, but after a moment, he mentally frowned and shook his head, realizing it had given the human a reference to being a Prothean. Forming one with him would have been simple, assuming it hadn't just tossed that Cipher on him. He shook his head again, indicating he was done. Joannis waited a moment to see if he would continue, before nodding. "Alright, that about covers everything we needed to know. Everyone, dismissed. I have to call the Council and let them know about this mess."

Icivia spoke up as the rest got up to leave. "You don't have to call them after every action report."

"No, but they are very interested in the mission, and my twin and I are the first human Spectres. They want eyes on the mission as much as possible."

Arlas noted the turian female flinched slightly at the mention of being the first human Spectres, and was curious as to why she did that, though he suspected he was the only one to notice. There hadn't been any before the Twins, and he had seen the ceremony inducting them in. He felt his eyes narrow slightly, and quickly schooled his features to their impassive normal positions, quickly vacating the room, as he remembered that the minds of the 'leaders' had been rather… unconcerned and distracted during it. Maybe the other Spectres had noticed, and didn't think the title was going to be permanent? He would need to meditate on how to determine his course of action later.

For now, he returned to the hangar, and entered the lander. He paused in the troop bay, before entering the armory. He was immediately mentally assaulted by the two eldar spirits housed in the various wraithbone constructs. Yol'Pvera was loudest and went first. * _What did you do to my secondary vessel, you misbegotten undesired offspring of the Laughing God's madness?_ *

Kap'Eiyl was a bit more reasonable. * _Are you trying to destroy all your equipment?_ *

Arlas just sighed, and rolled his eyes, before putting his weapons on the armory bench. Maybe he should head up to the medical bay and get examined, the Vyper crash had likely not done anything good to his still healing ribs. And it would mean he didn't have to deal with these two right now.

* * *

A handful of hours later, the two spirits had finally finished their yelling, and Arlas turned to the two stasis pods placed in the corner of the armory. "How are our guests doing?"

Kap'Eiyl answered, as Yol'Pvera was still very annoyed with him. * _Better than they could be. Both are showing all the signs of coming out of long term stasis without complications. The eldar's pod should be done in about nine standard days, the gyrinx will be done in eleven days. According to what I remember of the pods._ *

Arlas converted the time over, and noted that the eldar survivor would wake up as they left the Citadel at the end of the tournament. He nodded, before suddenly remembering something. "I will go inform the Twins of this. They will need to know so they can get more supplies."

He found Joannis in the mess hall, which was convenient as he was heading to the adjacent medical bay next. "Lioness."

She snapped her head around, having not heard him approach from behind, and gave him a terse nod. "Arlas. What do you need?"

He debated being flippant for a second, before deciding to keep the discussion professional as he took a seat across from her. "I wished to inform you that my crew and I are awakening the occupants of the two stasis pods. The first will awaken at the end of the tournament, and the other a pair of days later."

She nodded, eyes narrowing in thought. "So two more eldar around then? Not sure where we can put them, unless they want to use the sleeper pods."

Arlas shook his head. "One eldar, and they will use my lander unless it is deploying. The other one is more unusual, though I will have to wait until it is closer to their awakening before I know if they survived long stasis sleep."

That comment made Joannis look up at him in surprise. "What can you tell me about them then?"

"I will tell you more when they get closer to awakening. Also, I remember the humans back home enjoyed betting on arranged fights. Will there be betting allowed on this tournament?"

Joannis chuckled grimly. "Damn right there will be. The betting is the main way the tournament funds itself. One percent of all bets through authorized bookies is taken as a tax to fund the tournament. I am told they make billions on this one tournament alone, and they hold a dozen throughout the year. This one is simply the biggest and most popular one. Why? Thinking of placing a bet on yourself?"

He nodded. "Yes, it should be a good way to make some currency so I can perform my own projects without needing to ask you for help each time."

She leaned back, and simply stared at him for a few minutes, no doubt calculating how she thought this would go. "You already used your full allotment to get into the tournament. In fact, more than your full allotment. If my twin and I are going to forward you enough to make a bet enough to matter, you are going to have to offer collateral."

He frowned, before raising an eyebrow, causing her to explain. "Collateral in this sense means something that you are putting up insurance. If you win, I get a portion of your winnings, and you get the item back. If you lose or fail to complete the deal, I get the collateral."

He considered the request, before frowning. "I think I will go talk to Wrex first. You would want something I can not give, and while I am certain I will not fail to deliver, your twin would insist on keeping the item with you two."

Joannis gave him a confused look, and he just smirked softly, before standing. "I will speak with you again soon."

He left the human contemplating him, and easily found Wrex, down in the weapon range with Tali, going over the geth equipment the group had scavenged on Feros. He tapped Wrex on the shoulder to get his attention, and then sidestepped a reflexive punch. The krogan glared at him, before huffing in annoyance. "Don't do that. You are lucky I didn't go for my shotgun. What?"

He outlined his desire to make a bet on his performance during the tournament, but needed currency. Wrex frowned, before nodding. "Alright, I get that, what do I get from this deal?"

"A quarter of the winnings, and a melee weapon built for you based on something my people use if I deliver. If I fail, you get the weapon."

Wrex frowned at him, before leaning back against the table, effecting a bored expression, but Arlas could feel his sudden interest. "Why me, and how much are we talking here? I might have a few credits to spare for such a risk."

"The Twins demanded collateral, and to keep it with them. The collateral they would want was not something I can offer. A melee weapon, however, is definitely allowable. As for how much, well, I am not sure what bet should be, but more is better, yes?"

Wrex stared at him a moment, before shrugging. "I want to see what you will be putting up first."

Arlas shrugged, before pulling out the chainblade, and showing it to Wrex. He then activated it, causing the teeth of the blade to quickly spin up to speed. "I was thinking the one you would get should be a two handed one. Of course, such a weapon would be somewhat unwieldy, so maybe you would like a one handed one, so you can use a pistol with it?"

Arlas knew Wrex would take the offer as the krogan watched the rapidly spinning blade with wide eyes, and a grin so big it looked to nearly encircle his head. A moment later, Wrex started laughing, a low, dark, evil chuckle that wouldn't have been out of place coming from his fallen kin, before looking up at the eldar. "Hell, I would pay a million credits for a weapon like that. A chance to make money and get one? You bump my share up to a third, and you got a deal, Arlas."

Wrex stuck a hand out, and Arlas took it, his hand wrapping around the wrist in an old eldar custom, before suddenly remembering that the humans didn't shake like that. Wrex however, nodded to himself, apparently not offended. "Good, you do know something about krogan."

Wrex suddenly blinked, before his expression fell, and he started cursing softly under his breath. Arlas raised an eyebrow, and Wrex eventually stopped, a sheepish expression on his face. "Don't tell Fel, he will never let me live it down, getting my own blade after I taunted him that hokey melee didn't compare to a trusty shotgun."

 _A/N - Arlas hates me. Thinks I get way too much enjoyment out of annoying him. And torturing him. And hurting him. I hope it is entertaining though. But anyway, on with the ending of the second main mission. And yes, canon Mass Effect events will be more… a set of guidelines, rather than a strict rulebook. In case someone didn't figure it out last chapter. Anyhoo, the usual author requests go here._

 _Also, people using a guest account to ask review questions is just mean. I can't respond to them. And to the people that asked about the 'mostly' good guys, every group has their share of unscrupulous, mean spirited, or just assholish people._


	24. The Galactic Tournament

**Chapter 23 - The Galactic Tournament**

 _ **A/N**_ _\- Bit of a long one here, build up and execution took more than I expected._

" _BURN THE HERETICS! Only through fire and fury do we earn His favor!" - The ever lovable pyromaniacal Sisters of Battle. A bigger group of self flagellating overzealous loonies I have yet to encounter._

Two days later, the Normandy flashed into existence in the Serpent Nebula from one of the relays, having broken several laws and regulations about engine safety and responsible flying, and began burning hard for the Citadel. Arlas had been informed of their impending arrival to the station, and had come up to the bridge to wait for the docking to finish so he could go to the registration desk. Apparently everyone had to physically show up to finish registration, a bureaucratic measure that had been implemented after a salarian had entered himself into one tournament six times. The process had been open for a week at this point, and would be closing in less than an hour.

The Twins had forbidden him from using his lander to get to the registration and sign in faster, claiming his craft was too large and heavily armed to be allowed inside the wards, and had instead gotten him a local vehicle to take him there, which would pick him up at the docking bay. He allowed himself a sigh of annoyance. The crew had been consistently annoying lately, repeatedly ask him about how good he was and how far he thought he would get, allowing him to practice consistently ignoring them.

He was currently in his old carapace armor and his Striking Scorpion tunic, carrying his swords and shuriken pistol. He had wanted to bring some of his other equipment, specifically his long rifle and fusion gun, but the Twins had flat out vetoed it, claiming that C-Sec could and would detain and confiscate the larger weapons. Since he was already missing too much in the way of equipment, he didn't need any more of it exploding because some fool of a mon-keigh tried to steal it. He had instead handed the geth long rifle over to Garrus and Tali, who had offered to look it over during the week of the tournament and see what improvements they could make to it.

Arlas was less than pleased to be entering a mon-keigh stronghold so lightly armed, but he was going to have to make concessions if he was going to move among them without causing problems. He mentally shook his head, not irritated enough to need to move physically, before turning his attention to the still entirely unnecessary forward view point. That ship feature made him frown, even as he took in the purple dust cloud, obscuring the distant star. Even as he watched, something began to eclipse the star, and as his mind struggle to interpret the shadow into something he could understand, the dust cloud suddenly thinned enough to let him see the mon-keigh's Citadel in its entirety for the first time.

The first thing that struck him was the modest size, a notion reinforced by the knowledge that it was only forty five kilometers long at the longest extension. The smallest space station the eldar constructed was at least twenty kilometers to a side, though the Respite class spire stations were mostly long, thin spars to help minimize its chance of being detected, but it still could berth any class of eldar ship and defend itself. But this was just five long, thin plates that could open and close, and couldn't fight off a frigate without help. It was supposed to be 'impenetrable,' but Arlas had destroyed enough things called 'indestructible' to realize the mon-keigh hadn't really tried to hurt their precious, scavenged space station. A couple plasma cannons, plasma mortars, or pulsar lasers would burn through that 'armor' in no time at all, he figured.

"And if you look out the left window, you will see the Destiny Ascension, galaxy's largest, most overpriced bath toy."

Arlas actually chuckled as he looked over, and spotted the purple star from his first visit, and just shook his head. "And that thing is a warship?"

Joker snorted. "Yep. Asari designed, built, crewed, and all that jazz."

Arlas just chuckled again and shook his head. "It looks like someone designed it for something completely different, and then it got repurposed into a warship."

Joker looked over at him amused and nodded. "I know, right?"

Arlas' omnitool suddenly buzzed, and he tapped the accept button when he saw it was Joannis. "Lioness."

"We are approaching the Citadel. Where are you?"

"Bridge airlock."

"...Being nice to Joker?"

"Discussing the failings of the asari in making warships."

That got an amused cough from someone with her, but Joannis kept talking. "Alright, on my way up. Bringing Icivia with us, she needs to head further Wardside to meet someone, and will be taking our transport after we get off. You listen about the weapons?"

He simply sighed, and waited for her to get to the next point. Joker, however, butted in. "He is carrying his double peashooter and two can-openers, ma'am."

Arlas turned to stare at the pilot, who just gave him a shrug. Joannis saved her pilot from immediate retribution. "Thank you Arlas. We don't have much spare time. Joker? Get us docked quick as you legally can. I doubt the Council would be amused by me abusing my Spectre status to get parked faster. Especially for business not related to Spectre duties."

"I dunno ma'am. Blasto uses his to pick up dates and Icivia uses her to get to the front of the line in the mess hall."

"Blasto is a fictional character in a salarian movie. I am not. And Icivia did that once, to make a point, and agreed to not do it again when we called her out on it. See you two in a minute."

Arlas closed down the comm channel, before turning toward Joker. "Can opener?"

Joker gave him an amused smirk before turning back to his consoles. "An item for opening cans, of course. Pay attention."

Arlas considered the statement, before first drawing his power sword, then chain blade, and examining them. The former could qualify, if one counted things like Astartes or Necrons as cans, but the latter, not so much. He returned the power blade to its sheath, before idly flicking the power selector of the one handed chain blade on, and smiling softly as the gentle growling of the small, powerful engine began churning, rotating the wraithbone teeth through their channel, suddenly lost in memories of his Striking Scorpion training. He came back to reality when someone tapped his shoulder.

He turned, and spotted most of the ground team and some of the ship's crew, all of them staring, many of them concerned. He flicked the weapon off, and smoothly slid it back into its sheath, before glancing at the view ports. After a moment, he heard someone near the back speak up. "What was that thing?"

It must have been one of the frigate crew, as he didn't recognize the voice, but there was enough rampant curiosity that he answered anyway. "Chain blade. Meant for cleaving through unarmored or lightly armored foes. Like most mon-keigh."

That had neatly silenced the questions at him until they landed, and he found it was just himself, Joannis, and Icivia in the decontamination chamber for the first group. He looked at the empty chairs on the walls, and the empty floor space, which would allow at most a dozen people to be decontaminated for entry and exit at a time. He mentally dismissed the issue, before stepping out of the airlock as it opened. A quick look around showed there was no vehicle waiting, and he turned to the human with him. She was already moving to the elevator, and he sighed as he realized he was back in the same docking bay as during the first visit.

A short ride down later, and while C-Sec had tried to make a scene about his handgun, he had simply stared at them impassively, sending Joannis his mounting irritation and urge for violence at the delay, until she had 'reminded' the turian officer that he was a Spectre Associate, and therefore exempt from the firearm registration regulations. They were going to be late for the registration if this crap kept up.

* * *

Ashley shook her head as she watched the Lioness and Icivia enter the decontamination chamber. "And now he has a chainsaw sword. Great. Just when I thought the most vicious weapon he had was his flaying death net thing, he goes and pulls out a sword that is also a chainsaw."

She shook her head, before looking at the others in the hallway. "So, what are our plans for the week?"

Garrus shrugged. "Got a call from a fellow C-Sec detective. He needs some help with a job, after that, probably watch the tournament."

Wrex chuckled. "Got a bet to place, then taking that old armor to an armor dealer I know. Get it fixed, refurbished, and upgraded. Then meet with the Shepards' mother and watch the tournament."

Tali and Liara looked at each other, before Liara answered. "I need to swing by the Asari embassy, and see the local branch of a firm my family uses. Then Tali is going to help me pick out a new weapon and set of armor."

Kaidan shrugged. "Going to see about restocking everything, and see if the Alliance has our PAX-12 armaments, and a replacement mako so we can deploy the whole team, not just five people or so. And not rely on Elfy's lander. Though we will probably have to swing by Arcturus Space Station to get the latter two."

Garrus snorted. "Is that his official nickname now? And what about you, Williams?"

"Well, it was either that or Museum Escapee. And Tali's doesn't roll off the tongue as well."

Ashley shrugged. "See about a better set of armor and weapons, and then get some supplies for the party we will be having while Arlas is fighting."

Jaclyn Shepard came striding down the hallway, and looked everyone over, before tapping a couple buttons on her omnitool. She then began speaking, her voice echoing from the ships paging system. "Alright people, listen up. Commander Jaclyn speaking. Rules for the next week are as follows. We are on the Citadel for a week, getting repaired, rearmed, and resupplied. Once everything has been made ship shape, we are releasing the crew for shore leave. However, it will be rotating shore leave, so check the schedule before you run off, and keep your omnitools nearby. We aren't expecting problems, but the mission comes first, and worst case scenario, we leave Elfy behind to finish the tournament if we do get an urgent lead or mission. Remember to act appropriately, because even off duty, you represent the Systems Alliance."

She turned and gave the people waiting at the airlock an expectant look as she turned off the paging system. "And has everyone here cleaned up their stations and ship quarters?"

At a round of affirmatives from most of the crew, and mostly just noises from the ground team, she gave them all a bright smile, and reactivated the paging system. "All hands, there will be an inspection starting in the crew quarters in fifteen minutes. Any quarters or stations not up to regs will result in reduction or rescinding of shore leave. Carry on."

She ignored a couple of crew that had been waiting for the airlock suddenly heading back along the bridge toward the stairs, and gave the ground team a bright smile. "Joannis will be sending me Elfy's battle schedule as soon as it gets posted, so who wants a copy so we can rent a room and watch him get trounced? Though hopefully not too badly, some of us are placing bets."

* * *

Arlas stood with Joannis at the edge of the 'arena' where he would be fighting tomorrow. He could see a dozen mats, five meters to a side, in this room alone. He knew there were more than a dozen rooms scattered throughout this area of the wards, a massive collection of rooms, too big to be used for anything but either production or storage, but lacking any purpose without an abundance of materials. The one thing the compound did have was a surprisingly robust cooling system built into every room, and it made him wonder about the original purpose of the rooms. _Could have been perishable storage, and the asari just had the equipment ripped out when they first got here. Would fit with what I know of the race, claiming eldar wisdom, but having all the impatience of the humans. Think a couple centuries is 'long term planning,' that is when long term is just starting to show results, not finishing up._

He shook off the thought, before turning to the human. "Why are we still here? I have registered myself, and my two blades and sheaths."

"You registered the sheaths? Why?"

"Apparently you have never had someone hit you in the head with a metal sheath before."

He failed to mention that some eldar worked actual blades into the edges of the sheaths, but he had never tried it before.

"What, you don't want to see where you will be competing, getting a lay of the land, seeing your opponents and getting information early?"

"You seem to think I am concerned about them doing more than hitting themselves. Cute."

He leaned forward, and collapsed the helm around his mouth, so he could quietly talk in her ear. "Care to know a secret?"

She shivered slightly, an atavistic reaction to the power he had pushed into his voice, before nodding slightly. He smirked softly, letting his amusement carry into his voice. "I have been playing on all the missions before, except that part on Terra's moon when the mechs ambushed me. After Feros, and the destruction of my hovercraft? After the injuries on the Guided Wrath and the loss of my equipment? I am **done** playing. I think I will show you what an eldar can do when properly motivated."

He smiled, and reformed the mouthguard of his helmet, before looking at his omnitool as it suddenly buzzed. "Looks like they just sent the list. What is the crew's betting on my chances like?"

He still found the concept of betting unusual, but after more than four months with the mon-keigh, it was one of their more understandable tendencies. A chance to use their experience and instincts against each other, to sharpen their minds. The rewards were just a nice extra and to ensure everyone tried their best. He looked over the schedule, idly noting that only the first part had been filled in, showing that he was in section sixty four, the last section, and at the very bottom of the list. He was idly amused to note that the first opponent was an asari.

Joannis ignored his question, instead tapping away at her omnitool. "Alright, the rest of the crew has the list now. And you are first fighting… Asari matron Sula Wysius. Apparently been a 'professional' blade wielder and tournament competitor for three hundred years, and is considered a strong seed by the asari. Her listed odds, according to the official finalized betting chart, are about one in two sixty. Yours are… maxed out at one in ten thousand. Apparently, lacking data on your race, or a showing of your abilities, the bookies simply put your odds at variable, and a lot of people have been betting against you."

She frowned, before chuckling softly. "Apparently, there have been only sixty or so bets in your favor, though many of those have been… substantial."

He turned his head toward her, since she wouldn't see his expression through his helmet, prompting her to continue. "Spectres can see who placed the bets after the betting has closed, see if someone is trying to fix the tournament. Almost everyone on the crew has thrown at least a few credits behind you, but a few notables are Wrex, me and my sister, my mother…"

She paused in surprise before shrugging. "The Consort, and someone named Ben Hislop. The last put several billion on you winning the tournament. Might wanna have a look and see who that is, its a human name, but I am not aware of someone with that much in assets with that name. But I am surprised to see the Consort bet on you, she has a reputation of picking beings that get far in the tournament."

His curiosity aroused, he led the way out of the hall, toward the central room, where the last six rounds would take place. "Can you see who else she placed bets on?"

Joannis shook her head. "Results aren't correlated yet. I can search for who bet on the competitor I am currently viewing, but if I want to see how someone distributed their bets, I have to wait until after the tournament. It's to help protect the people making bets from getting attacked for their winnings."

Arlas looked about the last room, and saw dozens of private seating boxes arranged against the wall, all of them looking down at the thirty meter to a side mat in the middle. Done investigating, he turned to leave. "Seems overly complicated."

She nodded. "It is. Designed by salarians, against salarians. Strangely, it seems to work. Helps they have a couple Spectres that focus on this tournament for the week, just to make sure."

Stepping out of the 'arena,' he frowned at several approaching beings with small drones following them, before turning to Joannis. "What next? I have little to do until tomorrow when the tournament starts except finish healing my ribs."

* * *

Wrex stepped into the shop, and groaned as he spotted a familiar back at the counter, talking to the exact person he needed to. Realizing he couldn't get around it, he simply nodded as the two krogan glanced at him. The shopkeeper simply nodded back, but the other grinned widely, before walking forward. "Urdnot Wrex! What a surprise to see you here. Jurdon Congath here was just saying he got a tip for the tournament from you."

Wrex shot the shopkeeper a flat look, who simply shrugged in response. Their clans might not be even friendly opponents on Tuchanka, but out here, among the bastards that had neutered their race, every professional krogan at least tried to be less hostile to each other. "Well, you did."

Wrex really didn't care much for the blademaster, he was too loud outside of combat for his tastes, but he was also one of the few krogan Wrex trusted in a fight without reservation. "Can this wait, Fel? I got business with Congath."

Fel nodded, and stepped to the side. "Thanks for taking a look at that blade, Congath. I would, but I don't have much time for restoring old relics like that one anymore."

Wrex rolled his eyes, but stepped up and dropped the container he had been carrying. "Finally found something worth your time, Congath."

The ancient krogan behind the counter glared at Wrex with his one good eye, keeping the cybernetic on Fel. "First time hearing that from you. What do you have?"

Wrex smirked at the best krogan armor and weapon restoration expert in Citadel space, before pulling out the old set of family armor. "Just a little something I found while roaming around the galaxy with the human Spectres."

Fel swore under his breath as he saw the armor. "Damn Wrex, is that one of the sets of Battlemaster armor actually made by krogans? Hell, I thought they had all been destroyed at the end of the Rebellion."

Wrex smirked. "I found it. Well Congath? Think you can restore it?"

The ancient krogan, almost old enough to have fought in the Krogan Rebellions, laughed. "And make all those weakling Council races piss themselves seeing updated, original Battlemaster armor on a krogan? Hell, for that, I would do it for less than I normally charge."

The merchant paused, before staring at Wrex. "Two percent off."

Fel burst out laughing, as Wrex's jaw dropped. "You miserly plategouger! Twenty percent, you are going to be working on a legend here."

"You are right, it should have been one percent, but I have good memories of that armor line. Unlike you, you little bastard of Kalros. Four percent."

"You pyjak excrement. This is an **original** battlemaster armor, not one of those piece of crap knock offs the Council races make to swindle young, impressionable krogan. Seventeen percent off."

It took nearly twenty minutes before the two reached a price they could agree on, and decide what upgrades Wrex wanted in the armor. Once that was done, Fel slung an arm around Wrex's shoulders, ignoring the disgusted look Wrex gave him, before 'directing' Wrex toward a bar next door. "So, what is this about suggesting krogan not bet on the only krogan in the tournament worth a damn?"

Wrex snorted as the two took a seat. "Heard clans Nakmor, Gatagog, and Khel had someone competing too, not just your clan, Fel."

Raik Fel laughed loud and long, before shaking his head as he turned to wave down one of the servers. "I **said** worth a damn!"

* * *

Liara stalked out of the law firm that had served her family for nearly a millennia, before finally relaxing. "Goddess, I knew that was going to be unpleasant."

She looked around, and spotted Tali sitting on a bench nearby. A few steps, and she sat on the bench beside her best friend, and sighed. "Glad that is over with."

Tali looked over, her head tilted slightly. "What was that about anyway? You visited the Asari embassy and spent two hours talking with the head diplomat there, and then came straight here for another hour and a half. It is nearly lunch time."

Liara rolled her neck, trying to loosen her muscles. "Dealing with a potential problem. Hopefully my measures won't be needed. It is mostly asari law and politics, but if you want to know, I can tell you."

She glanced at the young quarian beside her, who considered the question carefully before shaking her head. "I doubt it would make sense to me. Ready to get some new-"

Tali was cut off by Liara's omnitool suddenly emitting a couple phrases of classical asari music, making Liara jump. She glanced at the message she had just received, before groaning. "This chore will not end. I hope the Twins appreciate what I am trying to do. Tali, do you want to come, or would you rather we meet up later?"

"Where are you going?"

"The Consort wishes to see me for lunch in half an hour."

Tali choked on her tongue before she nodded, the two of them standing and heading back toward the Presidium. Liara glanced at a map on her omnitool, then at the time, before directing Tali to one of the rapid transport terminals. "I think being early is better than being late."

Ten minutes later, the two stepped up to the entrance of the Consort's Academy. Tali took a seat at one of the benches in front of the building. "I will wait here. Have fun."

Liara gave her friend a snort of amusement, before entering the Academy. She nodded to the greeter, who smiled pleasantly. "Ah, Dr. T'soni, I am Nelyna. You are early, if you will wait a moment, I will inform the Consort you are here."

Liara nodded, and the asari acolyte touched her head, before murmuring a couple words into a hidden communicator. A few seconds later, Nelyna looked up. "Apologies, Dr. T'soni, but the Consort is with a client. Could I offer you refreshments or a place to sit while you wait?"

She accepted a cup of surprisingly good tea, a human blend called Earl Grey Amethyst, making a mental note to look into adding it to her supply on the _Normandy_ , and waited. Fifteen minutes later, an older, dignified turian male limped out of the back hallway with assistance from a cane, and nodded to Nelyna, before departing. A minute later, Nelyna approached her. "She is ready to meet you now. If you would follow acolyte Mythira, she will lead you to Sha'ira."

It was a short walk, though one that took far longer in Liara's mind. She knew why she was here, she just hadn't expected a response to her maneuver so quickly. She had her arguments and counter points already lined up, but the quality of her opponent had rattled her slightly. Still, she gathered her pride and lineage about her, before taking a silent but deep breath to settle her nerves, before entering the room Mythira had stopped in front of. She entered and saw the Consort already sitting at a couch in front of a table, reading a dataslate as she sipped at a cup. The Consort looked up as the asari maiden entered, and put the dataslate onto the table before standing to greet her. "Dr. Liara T'Soni, thank you for agreeing to this meeting with so little forewarning."

Liara took a second to get control of herself, as she realized that the Consort was absolutely gorgeous, a classically beautiful body under a sheer but simple dress, which hinted at its contents without actually showing anything. Her sapphire eyes impaled the young asari, a 'young' matriarch in her lair, fully in control of the situation. Liara finally got her voice back, and gave the Consort a precisely measured bow. "When the Consort requests someone's attention, she gets it. I suspect I know why I am here, but I will admit surprise that you are the executor of the family's estates."

Sha'ira smiled softly, and gestured to the couch across from her. "Please sit. I am quite interested in hearing why you have begun the process to legally remove your mother from her position as head of the T'Soni lineage. She was a close friend before I became the Consort."

Liara took the offered seat, and smiled slightly, forcing herself to relax. "Because Saren is using my mother's influence and assets to cause problems for the civilized galaxy. If my mother responds to my challenge, she has to return to either the Citadel or Thessia to respond to the legal inquiry into her recent actions, where she can be arrested and questioned about her involvement in Saren's crimes. If not, she loses access to the funds and influence she is using to assist him. Either way, Saren is hamstrung and loses a significant advantage."

* * *

Jaclyn made her last purchase, to be delivered to the _Normandy_ , where the group would be meeting to watch the tournament with the rest of the ship's crew. The had underestimated the price hike for renting buildings during a major tournament, one of three that happened on the Citadel throughout the year. It was considerably more expensive than they had budgeted for, so the optimal solution was to convert the mess hall into a lounge for a few days, and enjoy watching people beating the crap out of each other with holographic swords. Or as much as people could considering the blades would harmlessly shatter on contact.

She did have to admit that watching Arlas use his swords had improved her thoughts on melee weapons in combat, though she still thought they were at best a tertiary weapon at best, rather than purely ceremonial and for people lost in the past. Though she did have a tiny urge of picking up something bigger and more impressive, and use it in conjunction with her biotic charges and novas to shatter squads at a time; maybe some kind of two handed hammer, like what she had seen a krogan using on a show once as a kid…

Shaking off the thought, she noted Ashley was nearly to her, and nodded to the marine. "Done?"

"Yep, got a decent set of armor picked out. Thanks for suggesting that merchant, by the way."

Jaclyn shrugged as they set off to a rapid travel terminals. "No problem. Anything to keep the Doc off my back because people keep trying to imitate me and getting hurt."

That got a dry chuckle from the marine, but conversation petered out as they got into the cab. Five minutes later, they were setting down outside C-Sec, and a quick elevator ride brought them up to the docking bay. Once there, though, she felt her face break out into a huge grin at the sight of someone leaning against the railing, looking over the ship. She was an older human woman, about Doctor Chakwas' age, wearing a set of casual clothes, pants and a simple shirt under a leather jacket, and had a pistol on her hip and was typing away at her omnitool. She ignored the sudden falter in Ashley's stride, lengthening her own to get right up in front of the woman and execute a textbook salute, who paused in her typing to look up at the Commander though her thin eyebrows, one elegantly raised, and her full lips twitching into a familiar small smirk. "Captain Mom."

The woman's face suddenly transformed into a snarl of anger, as she snapped off her omnitool and looked Jaclyn Shepard in the eye. "Am I in uniform? No? Then why are you using a rank and saluting, girl?"

The commander simply laughed at the woman's exaggerated anger, and pulled the older woman into a hug. "Because it annoys you, mom. And that is the right of every daughter: to annoy and exasperate their mother."

The woman returned the bone creaking hug with one of her own, before pushing her daughter back to look her up and down. "Damn right. Just like it is my right to horrify and embarrass you. Oh, and I got your… 'gift.'"

Jaclyn didn't bother looking concerned over her mother's shift of tone to slightly ominous at the mention of the gift, and simply laughed. "You loved it, don't lie."

Ashley finally got close enough to join the conversation, but she kept gazing at the woman then at Jaclyn, before going back again, like she had seen a ghost. "Commander, who is… this?"

Jaclyn turned, letting the younger marine see the almost uncanny resemblance between the two. "Captain Mom, this is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Ashley, this is Captain Hannah Shepard, XO of the SA dreadnought Kilimanjaro. Also my mom. Oh, and Joannis' mother too, I guess."

Her grin only got wider when Hannah slapped her across the back of her head. "Be nice, she is your sister."

"Yes ma'am."

"Speaking of which, where is she? And can I get a tour while we wait for her to get back?"

"Dunno, and no, because you hit me."

* * *

Joannis glared at Arlas as he allowed the power in his cloak to dissipate. "You ditched me. Because of a bunch of reporters."

Arlas shrugged, not concerned about his apparent desertion of his ally to avoid that mob. He had recognized the breed from the original universe, and found the idea of simply avoiding them appealing. A quick pulse of power to his cloak, a use of his grappling hook, and he was away from them, leaving Joannis to avoid and deal with them as best she could. It had still taken her fifteen minutes to get free of the reporters, and he had joined her again near a rapid transit terminal. She tapped at it a couple times, before frowning. "Damn, terminal is down. Ah, I see, C-Sec has locked all the terminals in the area down. Well, we can walk a bit. Assuming you aren't afraid of the mon-keigh crowds."

He raised an eyebrow inside his helmet. "Can't you override it?"

"No, because you ditched me."

Arlas accepted the reply, and simply followed along as she effortlessly navigated the strangely designed station. After a few minutes of following, he finally sighed. "Who designed this madness place?"

"Protheans. According to the Asari."

He snorted in disdain, unable to suppress his instinctive reaction to that thought. "Then where are they? I need to express my displeasure at their lack of intelligible design."

"The asari think they wiped themselves out in a civil war. We on the _Normandy_ know better, though."

He just nodded at her comment, remembering the Reapers, and they stepped through a door into another section of the Citadel. She glanced at her omnitool, before nodding. "Alright, another two hundred meters, and we should find…"

Arlas suddenly felt a spike in his dangersense, and whirled, drawing both his power sword and pistol, causing Joannis to jump as he slipped into a defensive stance. She stared at what he had turned to confront whatever he had sensed, before choking back amusement. "Arlas, that is a Keeper. They are harmless. You were on the Citadel before, you must have seen one."

He stared at the creature, idly shaking his head. "No, I must have somehow avoided them."

It was an unusual creature, a bulbous, mottled green insectoid with four arms, four legs, and a two massive, dead, black eyes on its tiny head at the end of a long, flexible neck. It had some kind of metal pack on its back and its hands were working a hologram interface of some kind, but its head had turned almost completely around, staring at him. He blinked, and suddenly recoiled as its throat opened up near the base of its head, revealing rows of needle sharp fangs lining the inside of the neck that wouldn't have looked out of place on a tyranid, and it hissed at him while brandishing claws that would have impressed a lictor. He backed away a step, before suddenly realizing the creature had no mouth and hadn't moved, though it was still tracking his every moment. Clearly he had had a vision of some sort.

A quick glance around showed two more in the area, both of them staring at him, and he shuddered slightly. It was like being surrounded by tyranid genestealers, who weren't bothering to attack, just watch while other organisms moved into range to assist. He turned his head slightly to Joannis, putting the sword away, but kept his pistol in hand as he tried to keep all three insectoids in view. "We need to leave. Now."

She shrugged, unaware of the vision he had had. "They are Keepers. Utterly harmless, they only keep the Citadel running and repaired. Big fine for messing with them, as it kills them."

She frowned, before turning around. "Weird, they are all looking at you though, they have aggressively ignored anyone on the Citadel before. Whatever, almost to the terminal."

He reluctantly put the pistol back onto his thigh, but kept one hand on the grip. But as they made their way to the terminal, he couldn't help but notice there was now always at least one Keeper in the room he was in, and it was always staring at him. It was almost as unnerving as Joannis taking the sudden interest in stride with barely a comment about it. He resolved to not relax until they were in the _Normandy_.

* * *

The next day, Joannis was in the mess hall with the entire crew of the _Normandy_ , including Joker and Doctor Chakwas. The supplies the Commanders had been picking up the day before were opened, the last of the Thresher Maw meat was being grilled, and everyone was having a good time. The air was energized, like right before a big biotic-ball game. Garrus was debating the likelihood of melee weapons making a return to actual combat with Wrex and Ashley, Kaidan and Liara were discussing ways a biotic could use a combat blade, Tali was enjoying a dextro ration pack and talking about an improvement to the engines with Adams and the rest of the engineers, and the rest of the crew were scattered about the mess hall, too far for her to hear. She was sitting with her twin and mother, watching the screen, having already tuned to the extranet address that would be showing the tournament room where Arlas would be fighting.

He had been dropped off an hour before, giving her plenty of time to get back. She looked up, and then stood up and whistled loudly. "Everyone, they are finally getting started."

Everyone immediately shut up, and watched the parade of fighters into the arena. There were humans, turians, asari, salarians, a handful of drell, a single krogan, and a couple of quarians. Arlas was easy to spot, at first because he towered over the other competitors, but then because he was one of the few combatants that wasn't wearing his tabard and had pulled his bodysuit down to his waist, showing off his lean figure and almost sculpted muscles. One of the crew called for the VI to zoom in on Arlas, and then third the crew was laughing while the rest whistled and catcalled, before someone called out to Joannis. "Commander Joannis, I thought you said he was taking this seriously?"

Joannis laughed and shrugged. "That is what he said. I didn't realize that meant he was seriously turning himself into a sex icon."

As the fighters on screen dispersed to the various waiting areas about the room, the announcer for the channel shifted the camera's focus, and began discussing the various notable fighters. Arlas wasn't one of them, due to not having a known history. After a few minutes showing and talking about the competitors, the tournament's schedule for the room they were watching came up, and they saw it would be several matches before Arlas got his first fight of the five he would get today, if he wasn't eliminated. Hannah turned back to her daughters, a cheshire grin on her face. "So?"

Both her daughters turned annoyed glares at her, fully understanding the innuendo laden subtext hidden within that one word. "Not interested." "Too arrogant."

The Twins only got more suspicious when her grin got even wider. "Really? Then you won't mind me… 'talking' to him then."

The Twins both spoke at the same time. "Eww. Don't need to know what you are doing at night mom."

Thankfully no one else was close enough to hear, otherwise they might have seen both indomitable Commanders getting handily beaten in a conversation by their mother. More thankfully, Arlas' name was finally announced, drawing everyone's attention back to the screen, as an asari matron wearing high quality, customized leather dueling armor stepped onto the ring where Arlas already was.

* * *

Arlas stared at his opponent, ignoring the VI announcing the competitors. He didn't know this creature, and didn't want to know her either. A mental sigh flickered through his mind as he waited for the fight to start, realizing he was starting to identify the mon-keigh with more specific eldar terms in his mind. It was a sign of a lack of discipline, and that he was getting to familiar with them. He needed to keep his distance, so he could kill them later without qualms should the craftworld require it. He knew the Twins, at very least, were extremely likely to be targets of eldar Pathfinders, especially if their psyker talents ever went active, which he was now convinced were latent and boosting their biotics. By Khaine's sword, most of the ground team, other than Kaidan and Ashley, or Anvil, were high priority targets if their species ever became hostile to the eldar. And knowing his luck, and what the Elder Seers Council thought of him, he was going to be the one selected to take them out.

Shaking off such cheery thoughts, he looked at his opponent, who was glaring hatefully at him. He tilted his head a tiny fraction of a degree, causing the asari to start speaking. "I am Matron Sula Wysius, chosen champion of the asari of planet Zesmeni. You stand there, having insulted our beloved, wise, benevolent leader, as if unaware of the depths of your crime."

Realizing the asari was lost in her own fantasies, he looked at the nearby salarian judge, catching the judge rolling his eyes. "Have we started?"

The judged nodded, making Arlas sigh as he turned his attention back to the asari. "-worse, you stand there, barbarian, oblivious to the effect upon the true civilized people-"

Arlas sighed, before tapping his foot twice. "Bored now."

His opponent didn't hear him, too busy ranting about 'deceiving the youth with his fake muscles.' His hand snapped to the holoblade copy of his power sword, grabbing the weapon in a reverse hold, before drawing and flinging the hilt at the oblivious asari, blade first. She managed to declare that she would punish him for Tevos in the name of Athame, right before the orange holographic blade hit her in the throat, exploding into motes of light. The hilt then slammed into her throat, thankfully silencing the speech.

"Point for Arlas. Victory to Arlas."

He was surprised as the VI announced his victory, not expecting his attack to have counted. He collected the hilt with a shrug, and put it back in its sheath, before turning and leaving his gaping, gasping opponent to stare hatefully at his retreating back.

* * *

The _Normandy_ 's crew was laughing so hard that some of them had fallen off the benches at the tables. Servicewoman Gernado managed to gasp out, "Oh, god, he is getting all the weirdos."

Joannis had to agree. The matches after the first would show a highlight move or two from the competitor's previous matches, letting the viewers see a bit about the fighters. Arlas' second opponent after the asari had been a human in a black tuxedo, wearing a top hat, monocle and silvery cape and wielding a sword cane. The human had shown some skill in his first fight, but had underestimated the strength hidden in the eldar's wiry frame, a single swipe of the eldar's blade knocking the sword cane from the human's hands, before the backhand had hit the human in the neck.

His third opponent had been a salarian acrobat with a salarian whip sword, annoyingly good at staying away from his opponents and striking from odd angles with the whip to advance two rounds. Arlas had simply tangled the whip blade up in the holographic chainsaw sword, then yanked the far lighter salarian into range to strike at the flying, helpless salarian's neck.

Arlas' fourth opponent had been a turian bladesman with a second smaller blade for blocking, who had surprised nearly everyone when the blade of the blocking dagger suddenly launched from the hilt. Garrus had later identified the knife as a turian special forces knife, meant for silent, short ranged kills, before idly mentioning those were a controlled weapon. Arlas had simply flicked his head to the side, his expression still neutral, letting the knife fly by. Before the turian could reform the dagger blade, Arlas had yanked his chainblade from its sheath, and then sliced the holographic blade into the turian's knee, before making his now customary strike at his opponent's neck with the straight blade.

But it was the fifth opponent that had everyone laughing, a human as tall as Arlas and muscled like a bodybuilder, wielding a two handed sword as tall as he was. The man was clearly a fan of unarmed combat and bodybuilding, but it was the catchphrase with goofy poses and facial expressions that had everyone falling over. "The name, is **Recoome!** It rhyyyyyyyymes, with **Doom!** And you'rrrrrrre… gonna to be hurtin'. All. **Too. SOON!** "

Arlas, however, was clearly getting tired of the people trying too hard to be memorable, and had simply sprinted forward, horrifyingly fast, and punched his opponent in the gut before Recoome could react. The human had fallen over like a felled elephant, curled up with his arms around his gut, face buried in the mat, whimpering and shaking, as Arlas drew his blade and swiped once. Done with his final opponent of the day, he left the arena without a look back, pulling up his body glove from around his waist.

Joannis looked about the room, before standing up. "Everyone, I have an announcement to make."

It took the room a few minutes to quiet down. Once it did, she continued. "Wrestling is fake."

That sent everyone right back into hysterics, though a couple of the bolder crewmen and women booed at her and launched pieces of popcorn at her. She let it continue a moment, before continuing. "Now on to actual comments. First, we have just seen how an eldar fights seriously, so stop pissing him off. Second, be sure to offer our local celebrity congratulations for making it through the first day of rounds. Tomorrow will be the last four matches of the elimination rounds, before they get to the final sixty four competitors. After that, only the good, skilled, and serious fighters will be left. But right now, he went from being one of almost thirty thousand contestants to one of a little more than a thousand.

"But first, we have a mess hall to clean up. Once I get a copy of tomorrow's tournament schedule, I will push it out to the crew."

Jaclyn stood up, to inject her own comment. "Ladies and other crew members, I just checked Arlas' odds, and now that the bookies have a record of his skill to watch and base his odds on, they have put his odds at one to thirteen, down significantly from the one in ten thousand max it had been at. If that doesn't seem impressive, remember that Raik Fel, current champion and has been a champion for four hundred twenty odd of the last five hundred or so tournaments, has his odds at twenty to twenty one. The remaining best seeds' odds for the Council seated races are, in order of asari, turian and salarian, one to four, one to seven, and two to eleven. And the best seed for the humans is at one to twenty nine. So, for those of us that bet on Arlas when he had the maxed out odds, good for us, we are all gonna be filthy rich assuming he doesn't choke. For those that bet against him and want to get on the bandwagon now, well… sucks being you."

One of the security detail marines waved. "What does best seed mean?"

"In this case it means that is the individual most likely to win based on analysis, for a specific race. Now get to cleaning people."

* * *

Two days later, Arlas was sitting in the waiting room for the tournament, trying to decide it he was disappointed or not. He had had nine fights so far, and only two of them, a salarian with a long whip based blade, and the turian with the spring loaded knife, had been even worth drawing his blade, though the human in formal wear might have been worthy if he had known more about the eldar. He could have beaten the others without drawing his blade, and in fact had done so on the second day, hoping for a challenge. None of his four competitors the previous day had even broken his stride, three asari and another salarian, memorable only in that they were beaten by an opponent that hadn't drawn a blade, instead taking their own and using it to finish them.

While he knew the first nine rounds were meant to separate those with with skill from those with money and delusions, he had at least been expecting something impressive from one of them. Today he was fighting two asari, he had seen the tournament schedule, and they were the only possibilities. After that, things diversified a bit, but he did notice that nearly half of the sixty four remaining contestants were asari. He suspected they were tampering with the tournament layout to try and boost their chances of getting someone into the finals. He snorted at the sudden memory of Jaclyn taunting him about picking on children the previous day, secretly amused by the truth her comment had held.

Arlas stood up smoothly as the VI in the room called his name, and his opponent's name, one Lyla Astayothia. He knew most biotics abilities were prohibited if they directly affected the opponent, so he wasn't concerned about them. A quick walk took him to the far side of the mat they were using, more than twice the size of the previous mats going from five meters to a side to ten meters, but as he stepped into the ring, he suddenly whirled about, feeling hostile eyes on his back.

A keeper was in the corner of the room, working on one of the ubiquitous hologram terminals only they could access, but once again this one was staring at him with its dead eyes, ignoring the terminal it was working on. He stared at it for a moment, experiencing a sudden burst of anger that didn't feel normal to him, too diffused, but forced himself to focus on the tournament as the judge called his name again. He could hear the crowd murmuring, his superior hearing picking out many of the mon-keigh _(second lightest meaning)_ noticing the keeper staring at him like a predator, something they didn't do to any other race, and gossiping about it. He schooled his features back to their usual neutral visage, before stepping into the ring.

The ring had two salarian judges now, rotating every other set among eight total judges, to assist with the VI running analysis and point allocation. The judges were simply to verify the VI was running properly, after previous tournament where a salarian had hacked the VI to give him points when he 'broke' his hacked blade pushing and holding the holoblade's activation button. The salarian had gotten to the quarter finals before being caught.

His opponent, however, was the first one that made him feel a flicker of hope. A young asari, not overly endowed like most of her kind, though still a bit large like she had given birth recently, but instead looking appropriately female to his eyes, wearing a sensible body glove with some armored padding. She met his eyes and nodded once, before dropping her gaze to about his collar bone. He frowned slightly before returning the nod, and dropping to a ready position, noting her activating her own blade, but not moving her eyes from his collar. He suddenly realized that she was trained to watch the chest of the opponent, rather than the eyes like an eldar would be, to determine what the opponent would do next.

Both judges raised their hands, announcing a competitor with each raised hand to designate which was tied to which person, before dropping both and beginning the match. "BEGIN!"

Arlas had to jump back, the asari maiden suddenly inside his guard, stabbing at his chest with her blade. He had barely blinked, but managed to get his own blade around to deflect her blade, but before he could counter attack, she flashed away, revealing she was using biotic charges to close and evade. He let a small smile grace his face as he whirled to face the asari, giving her the tiniest nod of respect, having finally found an opponent worth fighting. He had known there had to be someone in the tournament.

* * *

Jaclyn watched the fight with a frown, idly tapping her datapad. "Well, that was unexpected."

Hannah glanced at her 'oldest' daughter, by one minute and seven seconds, before smirking. "What, that a vanguard can learn to use a sword? Honestly, my first thought when you did your first charge in front of me was 'why didn't she show more interest in that fencing class I tried to get her in?'"

Joannis snickered at the offended look on her twin's face, but continued to watch, wincing as Arlas caught his opponent with a gut punch before stabbing his sword against her head. Jaclyn shook her head as the fighters returned to their starting positions. "No, the interest keepers have in him. Anyone else so much as looks at them funny, they fall over dead. Him, they watch like Wrex is watching that last Thresher Maw steak."

Wrex snorted in amusement, before standing to go and grab the last steak in question. Jaclyn turned back to the screen, before nodding as the asari gave Arlas a glancing blow to his shoulder, enough to cause her holoblade to shatter, giving her a point. Arlas murmured something to her, too softly for the microphones to pick up, but it put a small smile on the young asari's face for a second. "One to one, game point. Are we about to see Arlas choke?"

That got a dark chuckle from some of the group, though Wrex snarled something unpleasant in krogan. Before they could get more information from him, the judges restarted the match. The asari biotically charged past Arlas, dodging a quick strike of the eldar's sword, but as she charged back to try for a backstab, she found him crouched down, chest almost brushing the ground, and his sword shattering as she came out of the charge in the space where his blade was. Joannis laughed. "Nope."

It was amusing to hear the gossiping of the announcers as Arlas saluted the young asari, one Lyla Astyonthia. Liara was subdued when questioned, replying that she had never heard of the lineage.

It was with some surprise that when the matches restarted an hour later, Arlas was the first one out, facing another asari, though this one was using a traditional school of blade work rather than the more fluid, almost self-taught version the vanguard had been. It also didn't take long for Arlas to bypass her rigid form, flowing effortlessly around the asari and eliminate her from the tournament. This time Arlas simply left the mat, done with his two matches of the day.

* * *

Arlas took a long, calming breath, reflecting on the tournament so far. In his mind there had been three, possibly four fighters actually worthy of being called swordsmen, or women. The young asari on the first day of the actual tournament, he didn't count the elimination rounds, a drell on the second day, and the quarian he had defeated the day before had even required one of his 'special' moves that he had been saving for the finals. The possibility was a turian that the quarian had fought on the second day, the two had fought for nearly ten minutes before the first point was given out. It was a pity that Arlas kept getting talentless asari hacks that thought a traditional blade form made them competent. Aware of the hypocrisy in the thought, as the Striking Scorpion shrine was at least six thousand years old in his craftworld alone, and the Howling Banshee even older, he stood as the VI announced his name.

His opponent had been called out before, the krogan blademaster Raik Fel was the sort of skilled threat Arlas thought he had left behind with the more aged and veteran Adeptus Astartes, according to the videos he had seen. Fast and skilled enough to possibly keep up with an eldar, and he suspected the krogan was also slightly stronger when in a blood rage. The regen of a krogan only got better the older they got, at least for 'minor' wounds, so this blade master would likely keep a senior aspect warrior of the Striking Scorpions or Howling Banshee busy for a while, if not win against them.

And Arlas had to take him in three of five bloodings. This was going to be 'fun.'

He had heard the arena resound with vocal recognition of Fel when he had come out, and the announcers had spent almost five minutes recounting his various successes. What he was not expecting was the arena to also welcome him as he exited, to the announcement of being the 'dark bet challenger.' He also couldn't help but notice that most of his support seemed to be coming from human females and asari, though he spotted a number of turian and drell as well, and ignored the signs and calls for him to 'marry them,' idly wondering about the gender imbalance in his support as he walked up to the stage and jumped on, not bothering to wait for the announcers to finish. Fel just laughed as he watched the eldar, before thumping his fists together. "Alright. Finally, the fight I have been looking forward to! To a glorious fight, between two masters of the blade. May our battle be epic, worthy of inclusion in the annals of our lives!"

"Actually, I am just a journeyman by my people's standards."

Technically true, he had been accomplished enough to be allowed on the field with other Striking Scorpions, but he had not been cleared for such a designation by his exarch before she had been killed. It had been his first mission, to see if he would earn it. That he had survived when the others hadn't made his actual Striking Scorpion position… debatable.

The impact it had on Fel was amusing. "Wait, you are still trying to solidify your style?"

Then Fel started laughing, long and loud. "Oh, this is simply perfect! I get to test out my skills against one who is still testing his own. I can't wait for your people to arrive, can you introduce me when they do? If you are considered competent, I want to fight some of the best! Judges, get this started, before one of us does!"

Arlas chuckled softly, drawing his holographic power blade as Fel drew his hand and a half sword, both settling into guard positions. Fel with his sword backwards, left shoulder leading, allowing surprisingly quick sweeping strikes from the right side or a ferocious charge. Arlas with his blade low, his body crouched, ready to move in any direction.

The judges shared a glance, before doing their customary raise hand, announce a name, raise the other and announce the other, before all eight dropped both arms, and yelled. " **Begin!** "

Arlas swore and rolled to his right to avoid a charge from the krogan, rapidly revising his opponent's speed and threat level. Higher. Significantly so.

* * *

Joannis had joined the rest of the crew in the mess hall, and was enjoying the fight. So far Arlas had been completely defensive, though she didn't think it was desperate yet. He was simply observing his opponent, letting Fel tire himself out a bit. Wrex, however, was just chuckling, and that got her curious. "What are you amused about Wrex?"

A malicious grin flashed her way. "Arlas is on his way to losing."

She raised an eyebrow as Arlas suddenly attacked, forcing Fel back a couple steps, before the two began carefully trading blows, now both trying to get a measure for their opponent. "What do you mean? His strategy was sound."

"First, krogan don't get tired from those little attacks. And second, Fel has the rarest form of bloodrage."

The crew all glanced at him, and he sighed before continuing, though he continued to watch the fight. "There are four forms of blood rage for the krogan. The most common increases regeneration, but its largest benefit stiffens muscles, ligaments, and cartilage attached to our plates to make them better resist impacts, but causes you to succumb to fury. You are practically feral, unable to think clearly. The next most common does the impact resist thing, but the regen growth is obscene, you will fire a high end assault rifle at these guys and they will laugh it off, though they are consumed by their rage as well. I got the third type, which is the second rarest, I know five other krogan with or had it; basically the second, but without the all consuming rage."

He nodded to the screen as Fel suddenly feinted a powerful swipe of his blade, before jabbing with his fist, catching Arlas in his bicep as he tried to block the feint. Knocked out of position and forced to dodge, but was unable to completely avoid it, the edge of the blade catching him, giving Fel the first point. "Fel's blood rage is the rarest, and he might be the only one I know with it. All the benefits of mine, but it also boosts his reaction times and speeds. It's why he is such a good swordsman. The harder the fight, the more his blood pumps, until it finally makes him almost unstoppable. I've seen a video of him killing a Mindoir stone bear with only a blade, and those things have killed military grade tanks before. And the crew inside them. And the infantry platoon escorting them."

The time the exchange started off quickly, Arlas drawing his chain blade in his off hand, and attacking Fel with both blades in rapid succession, forcing the laughing krogan backwards. The laughing paused as Arlas abruptly tossed the chain blade in an upward path, almost straight up, but with too much forward momentum to be useful unless Fel kept giving ground. The canny krogan immediately saw the gamble, and dug his feet in, forcing Arlas to a standstill as the two fought viciously, sword meeting sword, the eldar never getting into a strength contest, instead parrying, deflecting, and diverting Fel's blade in an attempt to get an opening.

Until Arlas suddenly jumped backwards, an aura of white gathering in his off hand. Fel had just enough time to realize what the eldar was doing, before the thrown chain blade hit him in the back, shattering into motes of light. The krogan's face turned offended, and he turned back to glare at the hilt on the ground, which suddenly flew around him to land in Arlas' hand. Arlas gave him a quick smirk as he put the hilt back into its sheath, before Fel suddenly burst out laughing. "That was brilliant! Again!"

Wrex rolled his eyes, as Joannis laughed. "That is what he was practicing in the hold last week. I was wondering why he was doing that."

This time the two combatants circled each other, both darting in for a single quick strike, and then back out. They spent nearly a minute probing each other, the time between their strikes rapidly increasing, until Arlas suddenly struck a second time, forcing Fel back. Fel let him advance, giving ground slowly, parrying or blocking each move, until he suddenly jumped back, just enough to get out of range of a powerful swipe by Arlas. The eldar had expected the krogan to block again, putting more force to try and jar his arm, and didn't have full control of his strike as it suddenly went further than expected. Fel lunged back in, and Arlas dodged the strike by dropping to the ground, but couldn't roll out of the way fast enough to avoid being hit by the follow up strike.

The two returned to their starting positions, the score now one for the eldar, two for the krogan. All Joannis knew was that she was not going to let Arlas to live down Fel getting two hits on him after all the smack talk he had been doing about the tournament.

* * *

Arlas was quietly furious with himself, but forced himself to calm. Instead, he took a deep breath, and channeled his psyker abilities inward, boosting himself and then carefully activating his fore-sense. It wouldn't last long, only two minutes at most, as he lacked runes, a circle, or a proper meditative state, but it would be enough. He settled into a wide stance, legs spread slightly wider than his shoulders, right shoulder and foot towards Fel. He pulled off the chain blade sheath, and tossed it out of the ring, easily flying out of the lightly padded, thirty meter by thirty meter arena. Done setting up, he grabbed the sheath with one hand before he removed it from his belt, and the blade's hilt with the other, his entire body twisted like a coiled serpent. It was a move the Howling Banshees did, not the Striking Scorpions, but his sister had been an expert at it, and he had seen her practice the strike enough to do it himself. Not to her standards, but he never had the talent for the banshee shrine.

Fel immediately jumped backwards as Arlas set his stance, recognizing the danger of it. The quarian had been defeated with such a move, not realizing the danger inherent in the stance, but Fel had seen the recording. What Fel hadn't seen was the effect of the psyker boost and guidance ability would have on it. Fel nodded to Arlas, neither aware of anything outside their opponent. The crowd, the judges, the cameras, the pressure to win. All of it was gone. Arlas would wait for Fel to come to him, or try throwing his only blade, and they both knew Arlas would be fast enough to dodge or deflect a thrown blade.

* * *

Fel could not stop laughing in his head. If this was the skill of a 'mere' eldar journeyman swordsman, he had to fight one of their experts, or even a master if he could. But right now, he was focused on the stance in front of him, and knew it was a threat. He had his sword, and that was it, having not considered needing a second blade before in the tournament. A mistake he wouldn't do again. A thrown knife before a charge would break that stance, but couldn't help him now.

He sighed, analyzing the stance, before nodding, and shifted his blade to a forward guard, before charging. He had two points before he lost. The eldar was on his last, and obviously considered this one his best skill, having only used it in the semi-finals, and immediately shifted to it now that his back was against the wall. As he charged, he forced his blood to boil over, and everything slowed down. His steps felt like they took a minute to land, but he could see **everything** the eldar was doing. And then he entered the eldar's, no, into Arlas' sword's reach, and the eldar simply **moved**.

Fel's sword was already striking, but he could tell, even as his own blade lashed out, he was too late. But he saw it, a weakness in the stance, how he telegraphed its start, Arlas' body twisting a tiny bit more backwards, showing his inexperience with the maneuver. No, two weaknesses, as the sword cleared the sheath, the blade tip catching slightly, the holoblade resisting breaking, but the eldar had to slow the strike because he couldn't reform the blade fast enough if it shattered. No, three weaknesses, as the holoblade shattered on his side, and the eldar struggled to stop the movement of his arm, even without the holosword's weight and mass, such was the sheer speed and momentum of the strike.

The the world slammed back into normal time, the blood rage passed, and Fel couldn't stop laughing out loud. "That was amazing! And you are only considered proficient? I need to sit down and talk with you later, preferably over drinks. But first, one final round, one final point! Both our species pride on the line! The title on one last exchange! But **fuck that noise**! We are warriors, what do we care about petty titles and pride of others? We fight because we love it! Once more, that same move. Cause I bet I can break it."

The eldar, damn his hide, just raised an eyebrow, making Fel want to fight him even **more**. "An impressive claim. If you can back it up."

Arlas turned away, before suddenly turning and taking up the stance again a modest distance from him. " **If**. Lets see if you are as good as you… **think** … you are."

Fel laughed, and laughed, and laughed. He laughed as his blood boiled over, and set himself, charging to meet the first real challenge he had met in a decade, his blade held high, ready to take on this delightfully impudent challenger. Because even if he lost, this Arlas had already earned at least some respect.

* * *

Arlas watched the laughing krogan Fel charge him, a tiny smirk on his lips. He would die before he admitted it, but Arlas was honestly enjoying himself. The krogan was so… delightfully straightforward. No innuendo, no hidden meanings, no politics. Fel just wanted to fight, prove his strength, and get stronger, and unlike an ork was smart enough to not do that by killing everything nearby that wasn't the same as him. While those were simplistic goals in life, that didn't mean Fel was simple, otherwise he wouldn't be this good with the blade. And Arlas would cheerfully admit Fel was better than him in his own head; Arlas was just abusing his better biology and psyker abilities to win. And his opponent's ego, of course, but that was a time honored eldar tradition.

Arlas wanted to prove he was competent, not just to these mon-keigh watching, but their leaders, and his own people. He wanted to serve his craftworld, prove he wasn't the Fool, for trying different things, even new things. That he wasn't a Failure, for surviving when so many others he had led and fought beside hadn't. That he wasn't a Deformed.

But most of all, he wanted to win. Then Fel was in position, closing much faster this time, as Arlas struck, his body uncoiling, the straight blade clearing its sheath slowly to ensure the pathetic holoblade didn't break, before slicing through the air, aiming at Fel's throat.

* * *

Fel felt his eyes widen as Arlas struck, even faster than before. He desperately tried to halt his advance, having been expecting the blow, and threw his weight backwards as the blade streaked upwards, an orange plane of light, angled toward his throat. He barely halted his forward momentum, and could feel the static charge of the blade as it sang past his throat, but the blade was intact as it passed, missing by the smallest of possibilities. "Hah! My victory!"

He stepped forward, bringing his blade down, a maniac grin on his face, and laughing all the while.

* * *

Arlas was a 'little' surprised the attack missed, but as the krogan proclaimed his victory, Arlas put his own vicious smile on. He ignored his right arm, holding the blade, instead suddenly bringing his left around and up. With a clench of his hand, suddenly an orange glowing blade sparked into life around the sheath, arcing directly toward Fel's chest.

* * *

Fel was already laughing far too hard, but as the eldar activated the sheath blade, he suddenly realized he had been played, right from the start, and wanted to laugh even harder. The real attack was the sheath blade, but the eldar had left it almost too late. He could see everything moving in perfect clarity, his own sword descending toward Arlas' shoulder as the eldar twisted slightly out of the way, giving him more time to strike, and the sheath coming about, frighteningly fast, for his chest, and he realized he had no idea which would hit first. It would be a victory chosen by the VI, by a few fractions of a second. And in that instant, only one thought was going through his head.

 _I want to win!_

* * *

Arlas swore in his head as Fel's sword descended toward him, and put everything he had into his left arm. As he realized he had no idea who would hit first, only one thought was in his mind, his entire being focused on a single thought.

 _I want to win!_

* * *

Motes of orange were everywhere, the two fighters in the finals having performed a 'mutual kill' on each other. The krogan staggering from the impact of the sheath against his side. And then the VI came over the speakers of the suddenly deathly quiet arena. "Point and match."

 _ **A/N**_ _\- The Respite class space stations are a custom space station, smaller than the canonical Haven class, just like the Sanctuary class space stations are much larger custom ones. So don't go looking for details on them._

 _Also, due to lack of canon evidence to the contrary, krogan in this story live until they die from disease or battle. Or substance abuse. Time is not the enemy it is to most other races._

 _And a Dragonball Z abridged shoutout in there, among many others. I was really just having fun with the tournament. Oh, and Raik Fel belongs to the author 5th Legion, I just borrowed him to give Arlas a challenge for the last fight after all the goofs and weirdos. What? Who won? … Obviously, it was Recoome. :)_

 _I tried some things with the tournament, as it was mostly for setting up important things later, and showing Arlas actually growing as a being. I am not sure they worked, but that is why we try things. The usual author requests go here. Favorite, Follow, and Review, as well as Vote on the Chaos Problem, but most importantly, enjoy._


	25. Eldar Problems

**Chapter 24 - Eldar Problems**

 _ **A/N**_ _\- Not sorry for that cliffhanger._

' _When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt, run in little circles, wave your arms and shout.' - Parody of the Litany of Command, Commissar Ciaphas Cain_

Arlas had been in many hellholes before. Fallen Asuryina camps, chaos war camps, the Insane Nun extermination holdings, desolate Necron held worlds, anarchic Ork worlds, but he never had thought the humans of this universe could come up with something comparable to all of those. A dance club.

Arlas was in the back room the tournament participants had claimed, the four krogan cheerfully leading the charge to clear out the other occupants unless they were willing to put up with the swordsmen and women, and now nearly two hundred tournament participants were in a space meant for maybe two thirds of that. And then there were the apprentices and fans. He snorted at the new use of the last word, fan. A civilian that was enthusiastic enough to follow everything about something, but not enough to go out and actually learn it to stand beside their hero.

He turned his attention from the five blade wielders around to examine the room, wincing as a particularly jarring note came through the wall. Sound proofed room, they had said, but now he knew better. He could hear the powerful lower tones through the wall, though it did muffle them. Passing through the club proper had been nearly torture for him, his sensitive hearing and eyes being assaulted by sounds and flashing lights even with his helmet on. And mon-keigh claimed it was enjoyable. No wonder none of them could hear eldar moving around, they deliberately destroyed their senses before learning to fight.

He had his face plate back, so he could talk directly with the mon-keigh with him, and enjoy his fruit juice. Something that he hadn't known about before, and wasn't sure he was better for it now. He already knew that water was losing its appeal, and not having fruit juice all the time was going to be a strain on his self-discipline.

He glanced around the table again, marvelling at who he was currently talking with, the turian fighter that the quarian semi-finalist had beat, the quarian, Fel, the turian with the spring loaded knife, and an asari matriarch who had been eliminated by another salarian with a whip sword who Arlas hadn't fought. All of them were interested in the _dorch marg kiar_ , or slaying draw in their tongue, but he was learning a number of things about their own techniques. All of them had an idea on how to do it, they weren't fools and had seen the move three times, but it was polite to ask before stealing moves, apparently.

So far he had picked up ideas for a couple maneuvers that might be useful if fighting something bigger than him, unlikely though that would be, so he didn't mind the conversation. Even if it had required him spending an hour talking to mon-keigh, but all these ones were at least… tolerable. The asari was polite, the turians were focused on the craft, the quarian wasn't trying to examine his equipment, and Fel was just softly laughing to himself about all the big wigs that had been sending him death threats for not winning and costing them credits.

The awards ceremony had been as stuffy and boring as Arlas had expected, though Fel had harrumphed as the 'ceremonial' blade was brought out to end the ceremony. When he had asked about it later, Fel had said that was the first time the actual blade hadn't shown up for the ceremony in the nearly five centuries he had been participating, and Arlas made a note to ask someone about it later, or just do some research into the sword himself. It wasn't like he had anything else to do with his free time after almost five months with the Twins except keep himself and his equipment ready, make upgrades and train.

Arlas suddenly winced at a sense of crushing pressure, causing the asari and Fel to stop their conversation about the benefits of different types of blades, and look at him questioningly. He shook his head, and finished off his juice, as he reached out to Yol'Pvera. * _What is your problem?_ *

* _Pod is suffering a major malfunction, can't open, oxygen system has died, the occupant is trapped inside. GET BACK HERE NOW! Just lost the stasis power system._ *

"Shit."

Arlas ignored the curious looks as he waved his omnitool, paying the bill as he stood. * _On my way, be there as fast as I can._ *

He looked around for the Twins, or even Icivia; all three of them had invited themselves to the… whatever this was. "Sorry, something came up, have to sprint."

A quick glance didn't show any of the Spectres, so he typed a quick message on his omnitool as he strode for the door. (Emergency at ship, need return now. WHERE ARE YOU? _)_

Joannis replied first, with a less than helpful question. (What is the problem?)

Jaclyn, thankfully, saved him from having to repeat the question. (Heading for the exit, meet you at the rapid transit terminal. Should I use Spectre status?)

He was a bit surprised at Jaclyn being the practical one, but replied while still heading directly for the exit. (If faster, yes. One stasis pod just lost power, can't open. Need sword, cut open.)

That got a response he needed. He spotted the two both moving quickly but not running toward the exit from their booth. Running would attract attention and possibly panic, especially when people realized that the two were Spectres. He didn't see Icivia, but when he got outside, he spotted her already standing beside a vehicle, the Twins only a few steps in front of him. Once inside, he pulled his helmet off. "My gratitude. Twins, let healer Chakwas know of the problem, she will need to prepare for the occupant, and let C-Sec know we will be blowing through their building. I will not stop if someone is in my way."

Icivia apparently hadn't checked his last message. "Bad?"

"Yol'Pvera let me know the pod has lost power, the air exchange module isn't working, and the latch was fused shut."

Icivia nodded, already tapping away at the controls. He settled back, before looking over at Jaclyn, his expression shifting to its normal emotionless, neutral set. Joannis spoke from the front. "Alright, Chakwas knows and is heading down to the hangar. Can a couple people get on to try and force it open?"

He shrugged. "I doubt it would work without also injuring the occupant. And my two companions would react… poorly to such an attempt. I will have to do it."

Icivia spoke up. "We are about fifteen minutes away, ten if I push everything. Which I am. Hopefully your fellow eldar can last that long."

Arlas didn't reply, simply kept staring at Jaclyn, who finally looked over at him. "What is it?"

Arlas contemplated keeping silent for a moment, before deciding against it. "Deciding if I should kill you or not."

He allowed the shocked silence to linger a moment, before continuing. "However, this is more important. I will see both Twins in the briefing room after I deal with the pod to discuss why."

The eldar turned to the window, ignoring the three mon-keigh {third meaning} as he breathed slowly and steadily, linking with Yol'Pvera and Kap'Eiyl so they could track his progress. Several minutes later, the ride far more tense then it had been, they finally arrived at their destination, C-Sec Academy. Arlas was out of the rented transport before it actually stopped, and moving at a ground eating lope toward the elevator heading up. Once in, he turned back to the mon-keigh, and tilted his head, sending his impatience.

The elevator was as slow as he remembered, and they could all hear Arlas taking deep, calming breaths to keep himself in control before he finally reformed the face plate for his helm. His breathing was because now he could feel her, the pod's occupant, barely conscious, but she understood something was wrong and that she couldn't breath. He sent his reassurance he was on the way, but she couldn't hear him, she wasn't aware enough to allow for coherency. Another deep breath, and the elevator finally started to slow from its slow pace. "She is nearly gone, I am not waiting at the next one."

Once the elevator landed, he spotted the cleared area, and was slightly relieved as he outright sprinted for the other side. He heard several cries of alarm, and one of the guards near the elevator mentioning something about a situation on the Normandy's dock. Arlas snorted, damn right there was a situation. He activated the elevator as he got in, seeing Icivia talking to some of the guards, but simply nodded as she waved to him. He would remember the help they gave.

As the elevator went up, he opened a comm line to the pilot. "Joker, open the hangar bay."

The pilot was slow as always on the uptake. "The hangar? Alright…?"

Arlas closed the line, not willing to waste more time, and then opened one to the doctor. "Healer Chakwas, are you at the lander?"

"Yes, though it has been nearly ten minutes since I was notified of the problem. I know eldar physiology is different from human, but that is three minutes later than a human in peak physical condition can last. I know there was likely air inside the pod…"

"Eldar can survive twenty minutes without air without permanent damage, thirty before death."

He closed the line, and frowned as Jaclyn contacted him. With a sigh, he opened the line. "Arlas, Jaclyn, there is a situation on the dock, a scared and running slave with a gun. I know you want to save your own, but PLEASE avoid going near the end of the dock. We will deal with that, you save your own."

He sighed, before closing the comm line, but they were getting near the dock. The lift doors opened, and a C-Sec officer was turning toward. "Wow, that was fast Spec… Wait, who are you?"

Arlas didn't answer, simply stepping around the human. He ignored the C-Sec's order to stop, instead firing the grappling hook into the Normandy's side, and pulling himself up on top of it. He ran along the top of the ship, barely glancing at the human female huddled behind a couple crates at the end of the dock. At the back of the ship, he fired the grappling hook into the ship again, before jumping off and swinging around into the hangar. A glance showed the ramp of his lander down, the door open. He dashed in, sliding around the corner, and spotted Chakwas standing beside the pod, Kap'Eiyl in the wraithguard near her.

The former Shadow Spectre sent that he had politely offered to ensure she didn't touch something that might explode. The real reason was that she was mon-keigh, and if she tried something he didn't like, he would smear her across the wall. Though the wraithsight issue made it hard to tell exactly what she was doing, but most of had been examining the pod. Doctor Chakwas, however, was more succinct in her observation. "Arlas, finally."

He didn't even spare the healer a glance, instead yanking his power sword out, and placing a hand on the stasis pod. After a moment of checking the pod himself, rangers ALWAYS verified things if they had time, he shoved the sword into the pod, getting a good seven centimeters of the blade into the material along the seam, before carefully pulling it to the side. He got about two thirds of the way before the top suddenly started hissing as the seal finally gave out, and once the sword came out the side, the top separated from the bottom.

The eldar in the pod choked loudly, but didn't move or open her eyes. Chakwas immediately jumped forward, concerned only with the patient in front of her, and missed the wraithguard suddenly reaching out to grab her. Arlas simply hit the palm of the wraithguard's hand with the back of his sword, before linking directly with the dead eldar. *( _Shadow spectre warrior Kap'Eiyl, what are you doing?_ )*

He felt Yol'Pvera slip into the conversation, likely invited by Kap'Eiyl, but ignored her as Kap'Eiyl replied. * _She is gathering information about the eldar._ *

Arlas sent a mental sigh to Yol'Pvera, before pushing the wraithguard, though the far heavier construct didn't move. *( _She can't help our injured kin if she doesn't know what is wrong._ )*

* _And when she reports what she has learned, and they use that to start making a genophage for us?_ *

He sent disappointment to Yol, knowing his pilot was the source of the warrior's information and concern. Kap'Eiyl didn't need to worry about things like that, and the pathfinder turned to the wraithguard. *( _Shadow spectre warrior Kap'Eiyl, stand down._ )*

Arlas felt both of his companions' outrage as he pulled rank on Kap'Eiyl, but the dead warrior gave the only reply he could in the situation. * _Very well, Pathfinder. But I am reporting this._ *

*( _As will I._ )*

He didn't react as both of his companions abruptly disconnected their thoughts from his, but in his mind he screamed in annoyance. He didn't need this, he needed his eldar companions helping him, not shutting him out and ostracizing him. He watched the wraithguard walk back into the holder, before turning back to Chakwas, who was blissfully unaware of how close she came to getting her head taken off by an unhappy wraithguard. "Doctor, can she stay here, or do we have to move her to the medbay?"

The doctor hummed. "Medbay. My omnitool can't do much more than get scans, if she needs something more than bedrest."

Arlas could feel the glare from the two spirits, before nodding. "Fine. Yol'Pvera, finish the other pod. Kap'Eiyl, you are to protect her. Doctor, a word while we wait for a conveyance."

He pulled the offended healer outside, and made a mental note to avoid getting hurt in the next couple of months. He passed the two humans escorting a floating bed, before pausing and looking back to make sure he had seen what he had thought he had seen, before finishing escorting Chakwas outside. He spoke before she could start. "Doctor, the other two don't trust you. They know about the genophage, and that I have been in your care twice. I don't mind you sending what you have gotten from me, but if they find out you are sending information about her back, I expect Kap'Eiyl will use his wraithcannon on you. And don't do any surgeries without letting me know first."

He felt both spirits getting less angry at him, but the look on the human's face made him realize he was starting the eternal dance once again. Yol'Pvera contacted him directly. * _The other pod is working fine, and will be done in two hours. Eldar hours._ *

He sent back anger at the insult, that he didn't remember his own species, but didn't actually reply. Chakwas was too busy staring in shock and anger, but she quickly got her voice back. "Those files were sent back to Alliance Medical Command, so we know how to treat any other eldar that get hurt. We are certainly not sending them to the salarians to make another genophage."

Arlas' tone was so sarcastic he was surprised he didn't hurt himself. "Yes, because the salarians will bother to ask for that information."

He paused, letting her reluctantly acknowledge that point, before continuing, this time returning to his emotionless monotone. "No records. Else my companion will ensure no further ones will be sent."

Arlas was aware he was using **far** too many threats today already, but he was lacking options. A glance showed the wraithguard following the two assistants moving the unconscious eldar, so he stepped aside to talk to Kap'Eiyl. *( _Do not attack without contacting me. They can't touch her mind to tell what is wrong, they rely on scans._ )*

The spirit sent a mental snort of disdain. * _Mon-keigh._ *

Arlas sent a mental glare, continuing as if he hadn't been interrupted. *( _So don't attack unless they start cutting. I will inform you of any procedures they will do before they start. If they talk to you, let me know._ )*

Kap'Eiyl was more calm now, his anger at the situation having slowed to a mere unease again, and sent his understanding and intent to comply. Done with that emergency, Arlas turned and headed toward the elevator, joining the three humans, the stretcher, and the wraithguard. After a second, the elevator buzzed, and Arlas sighed in vexation. * _Kap'Eiyl, the wraithguard is too heavy for the elevator and the rest of us. Step off, I will come back down for you._ *

* _Primitive mon-keigh._ *

The wraithgaurd stepped off the elevator, which finally closed its doors, and started up. Once everyone had gotten to the crew deck, and while everyone in the mess hall stared at the armed Wraithguard contorting into the medical bay, Arlas bounded up the stairs, heading for the debriefing room. He stepped into the room, and moved to the center, standing just in front of the Twins who had clearly been waiting. Jaclyn was radiating fury and arms at her side, while Joannis had her arms cross and was glaring at him with unsurprised disappointment, like a Farseer seeing a ranger squad out of place.

Arlas simply stared at Jaclyn, before reaching out, and twisting the energies in the crystal he had placed in the room during the second briefing, which had been recording everything that happened in the room, and could also show it back. It showed a blurred Jaclyn by the comm console, behind the actual Twins, and Admiral Hackett's holographic image above the communicator. He gave the twins a nod toward the communicator, before sitting in one of the chairs. The record started with Jaclyn speaking. "...we encountered a pair of lifeforms that Arlas called daemons. He ordered the destruction of all records of them, muttering something about corruption. Sadly, we haven't had time to figure out what he was talking about, but I am sending the report in now so you can at least review it. Only three pictures, no videos…"

Both of the twins whirled about as the recording spoke, Jaclyn's face going pale at the sound of her own voice, Joannis just staring in shock. Arlas paused the recording, before slowly drawing his blade and examined the edge, before collapsing the face plate, and staring at Jaclyn. "Well, mon-keigh. I am waiting, as I am sure your sister is."

Jaclyn stared at him for a moment, before sighing. "Surprised that is what you are up in arms about."

He snorted in disdain, as he put the sword away, having already made his point. "What, that you managed to get a scan of the front half of my destroyed rifle? Humans have been trying to understand eldar technology for almost as long as the asari have supposedly had writing. If your people can actually understand anything about eldar technology…"

He paused, and then chuckled condescendingly. "Well, you won't. But if you desire to drive yourselves insane trying, go ahead. But Chaos is different. That insanity is a disease, and it has done before what it will do again; spread to everything, everywhere."

Joannis sighed, before rubbing her forehead. "How bad is this going to be, really?"

He gave her a glare, before sighing. "Chaos is the one enemy, in sixty million years, my people have never truly won against. Even if they went a million years without resurfacing. It is more a natural disaster than a faction, and it will consume this galaxy as inexorably as it is consuming the one my people are **fleeing** from."

He stepped forward, getting right in Joannis' face. "Does that mean anything to you? You have seen my equipment, you have seen me in battle. You know my… confidence in my people and abilities. And I am admitting we are running from something. And your people think you can control what we are trying to get away from? That it is safe to observe, when we have failed for sixty million years?"

Khaine damn him, he was actually trying to appeal to their sensibility here, despite mon-keigh being well known for being stupidly stubborn and…

"Fair point."

Arlas actually stepped back in shock, barely believing what he had just heard. Joannis smirked slightly but kept talking. "I will get everything about who has seen it. As long as you are promising to not kill everyone that saw it out of hand, we can track them down **after** dealing with Saren. I will deal with Jaclyn."

He nodded tersely. "And I will follow your orders to the letter."

That got a wince from the Twins, but Joannis nodded. Arlas stepped back, and took a breath, before nodding. "I believe we are done here, now. When you get me the information on who has been exposed and where, I will start following the intent of your orders again."

Arlas personally put the results arriving after two missions. The first for them to realize just how much they needed that intent, and the second because their commanders would need more time to get the records in question. He walked out of the briefing room, and realized that he hadn't gutted Jaclyn, before mentally demoting her to mon-keigh. Done with both emergencies, he sent a message to Wrex, asking when he would be getting his portion of the winnings, and if he wanted a one or two handed chain blade, as he headed to the hangar. He had to wait for the other pod, and might as well get to building Wrex's chain blade, though his would be modeled on the Imperium's chain blades, rather than the eldar. It would also be changed to draw power from a power pack, rather than from the psyker energies of the wielder.

Two hours later, Wrex still hadn't replied, so Arlas decided to go with the biggest two handed chain blade he could make, and then have Tali see if she could add some eezo to it to make it light enough for Wrex to use. He paused after getting the rough outline of the chain blade done, and looked down at the blade almost as big as he was, before reluctantly taking a half a meter off the length. Done with the basic outline, he set the oversized blade down, and headed for the corner of the armory, where the second pod was finally done and opening. He paused near the pod, and mentally reviewed everything he knew about gyrinx, before standing a bit back from the pod and dropping down to place both hands on the floor, and then he waited.

After a short wait, for an eldar at least, the gyrinx in the pod finally bounded out, before looking around. Arlas felt its gaze meet his, and while the gyrinx noted his position and presence, he felt the gyrinx dismiss his presence as unimportant. He took the time it was looking around the armory to look over the gyrinx. A bit thin, the four he knew about on the craftworld tended to be a bit bigger and more muscular than this one, but they were bonded to combat warlocks and farseers, and this one's tail looked to have been shortened at some point, likely a combat wound. Its fur was a deep brown, almost black, with white stripes down its sides, and its ear tufts of fur were dark red, providing an interesting contrast to its bright green eyes. Its tail trashed as the gyrinx spotted the other pod, and it leapt on top of the pod, only to snarl as it landed in the pod.

The gyrinx jumped out, and looked about the room again, but after seeing only him, huffed before jumping down and stalking toward him. The gyrinx looked up at him, before sending him a mental image of the female eldar, though the image also included smells and a feeling of firm kindness. * _Where?_ *

Arlas sighed as he could now increase his total of 'gyrinxs that barely tolerated him' to five, before standing. * _She was hurt. Follow, I will take you to her._ *

The gyrinx immediately bounded toward the airlock, its destination clear, and Arlas followed. The gyrinx didn't even glance at him, instead following the path the stretcher had taken, its nose to the ground, ignoring everything else. The gyrinx got into the elevator, circling twice as it tried to follow the scent, before looking up at the slower eldar, and sending his irritation to Arlas. Taking a hint, Arlas stepped into the elevator, and started it up.

He refrained from glaring at the gyrinx as it bounded toward the med bay as the door opened. Instead he glared as what seemed like half the crew watched with confusion the bounding bond animal, before Ashley turned to him. "Where did you get a cat?"

He sighed, allowing his irritation to show. "That is a gyrinx, not… whatever a cat is."

He stalked after the cat, dreading what he would find when the craftworld gyrinx encounter the doctor. Luckily, he entered the room before the screaming could start, and noted with relief that Kap'Eiyl was kneeling in one corner of the room and out of the way, Chakwas was at her desk staring at the gyrinx in confusion, and gyrinx was up on the bed, staring down at the unconscious female. He approached the gyrinx, pausing when Doctor Chakwas spoke. "What is that cat doing in here?"

"That is a gyrinx, not a cat. And he is worried about his bond partner."

Arlas did admit that the single mindedness of the gyrinx was reassuring, he wasn't having to deal with a distraught psyker trying to kill itself or get to its bond partner in another system. The former would likely have blown out the hull in such a fragile warship, it was the reason why wraithbone resisted psyker attacks so well, but the latter would have caused a massive problem as the gyrinx did everything it could to get back to its partner. He stared at the gyrinx for a moment, before turning to the human healer. "Do not do anything to her without calling me first. Otherwise the gyrinx will defend her unless I have explained what is happening and why."

Doctor Chakwas frowned. "And how long is that one going to linger? A rifle is not conductive to relaxed healing environment."

Arlas didn't bother moving as she turned and gave Kap'Eiyl a pointed glare. "When they start listening to me again."

He didn't bother trying to order Kap'Eiyl out, instead just repeating his 'request' to be informed before the shooting started. The pathfinder simply left the room, not fighting a battle he was certain he couldn't win without losing what little authority he actually had over the spirit kin. He headed down to the lander, and simply sat down in his room, wishing he could take his meditations early, or even get some healing goddess Isha blessed sleep, but he had too much to do, and no idea how long he had. He sent Wrex a message, demanding a reply within a few minutes or he was going to get a stupidly large chain blade instead of one meant for actual combat, and that he needed to know how much the bet had earned him so he could give Tali and Garrus a portion. They were going to assist him in adding some things to some of his equipment, and he couldn't do that without knowing how much he now had.

He glanced at the door to the human's ship, before sighing and pulling the rune armor and spare shadow spectre armor off its stand, and placing both on the work table. He had an idea he wanted to try, and with the warp pack on the wraith armor stripped of most of the bulky armor, he figured it was worth a try to merge the jump jets of the shadow spectre into the already modified rune armor. He was under no illusions as to how difficult it would be though. But he was quickly discovering that sticking to the warrior paths was not going to work here, versatility was the key to supremacy on the field of battle here, not specialization.

* * *

A day later, Arlas was at the Normandy's hangar armory's workbench, having made a simple shuriken catapult after taking apart the shadow spectre armor, and was now watching Tali work on it. She was trying to add whatever was needed for their technology, but judging from the soft cursing that had been slowly growing louder of the last hour, he guessed it wasn't going well. The weapon lacked a clip and active power source, which was why he had to stay close, but he figured they would need an actual singer working with her to get results.

He glanced at a large crate, by eldar standards, containing a dozen pieces of equipment Tali and Garrus had thought the geth long rifle could get some use out of, as well as a canister of eezo and a stack of shield emitters he had asked them to get as well. Wrex had given him his share of the bet, which he was told was significant, but he had no idea how much he actually had in terms of material. He had taken Wrex's advice to 'invest,' which basically meant give it to a 'banker,' whatever that was, who would make his money make more money. He had recommended Varla Bon, a volus on the Citadel, and a quick meeting with the volus had apparently been all he needed, though the volus had insisted on explaining exactly how the process would work, which had allayed several concerns Arlas had, and a few questions had taken care of the rest. While that was happening, Tali and Garrus had been shopping.

He glanced back at a particularly vile curse in quarian from the quarian, but Tali didn't look up from the weapon in her hands. Arlas turned his attention back to the equipment, wondering at a sudden, minor spike in his dangersense. He frowned, before looking around, but other than the elevator descending, he couldn't notice anything else changing. He reached for the stack of shield emitters, trying to track the feeling down, his hand moving slowly, as the elevator dinged. He looked up as Wrex and Ashley stepped out of the elevator, his hand snagging one of the emitters, and began turning it over in his hands as the two walked past the work bench. Tali didn't look up as the two greeted her, and Arlas only got a greeting from the krogan and a stony glare from the human.

He simply nodded to Wrex, before turning the emitter in his hands over, examining every inch of it, his dangersense pulsing a warning. This was what the problem was, but why he couldn't see. Wrex stopped his forward progress, and coughed. "What are you two doing?"

Tali's reply was less than polite, but Arlas answered before she could get more than a couple words. "I asked Gemling to see if she could add your technology to some of mine. She is having more problems than anticipated. I am examining this shield emitter and keeping the weapon intact."

Tali glared at him, before picking up the shuriken catapult, and shoving it into his chest, making him gasp in surprise. Arlas felt something in the shield emitter shatter as the catapult hit it, and a blast of pale blue flecks washed over his face. He coughed, shaking his head, as Tali stalked off to the engine compartment. Arlas tried to stare after the monkeigh in confusion, but couldn't stop coughing for some reason, and shook his head, regretting his decision to wear his bodysuit and tabard today instead of the chest plate and helmet. Wrex smirked, slapping Arlas' back as the krogan started laughing. "You really have no idea what to do with a woman, do you? Don't worry, if you need help, Uncle Wrex is always here, ready to offer advice."

Arlas tried to glare at him, but his coughing was getting worse, and he could feel himself getting dizzy, and that his face was starting to feel swollen, like someone had slapped him again. He shook his head, trying to get his lungs to work right and focus, but he could feel himself getting light headed, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop coughing. Wrex paused, and looked at him with one eye, before turning to focus on him. "Uh, Arlas, you are looking kinda… what is the word? Pale? Yeah, pale, you thin hides get pale."

Arlas barely heard Wrex, but managed to shoot him a glare for the pale comment, before putting the emitter and catapult on the table, when he noticed his vision starting to darken around the edges. He reached out to try and stabilize the catapult so he wouldn't have to focus on it, when he felt a sudden searing pain, right through his throat and upper chest, before the darkness suddenly became total, and he lost track of everything.

* * *

Joannis stood outside the medbay, watching through the window as Chakwas and Liara both worked on Arlas. She sighed, before turning to Wrex. "So he started coughing, turned pale, tried to do his psyker light show, and then just fell over?"

Wrex grumbled as he picked at the bandage someone had put on his arm, and nodded. "You forget exploding eldar crap, but yeah."

Joannis groaned, looking at the crouched eldar walker in the corner, where it had moved in minutes after the female had arrived. Her gaze tracked across the medical bay, to the female eldar, and the surprisingly majestic and handsome cat standing over her. She had so many questions, and now Arlas was down, resting on the second table of the medbay. As she watched, Liara nodded and rubbed her forehead, before heading to the back room of the medbay, while Chakwas turned to talk to the walker for a moment. After watching for a second, Joannis turned to Tali, who was wringing her hands. "Tali, thanks for coming up. Wrex says you were… uh, talking with Arlas right before he had his attack?"

She caught herself before she implied there had been something else going on between the two, not wanting to fluster Tali any more than she already was. Tali nodded. "Yes, he asked me to try and see if I could combine the mass effect with his technology. I didn't think it would be that hard, but that thing had no moving parts. Nothing. Two hours spent on that bosh'tet piece of junk, and he just stood there watching. I thought he was being serious when he asked for help, but…"

Commander Shepard sighed, before nodding. "So he played a prank. What happened next?"

Tali stopped her rant, and took a calming breath. "I shoved the fake weapon against his chest, and left."

Wrex frowned, before suddenly speaking. "Wait, I heard something crack when that happened, and he put a shield emitter on the table right before he passed out."

Joannis turned and rubbed her forehead. "And you didn't mention that before because…?"

Wrex simply shrugged at her. "Didn't think it was important."

Joannis simply nodded, knowing better than to chide the old krogan. She glanced at the medbay, and then turned to the door. "Doctor Chakwas, finally here to update us on our… confrontational passenger?"

The doctor snorted in amusement at her description as she nodded. "He appears to be suffering from Eezo exposure."

All three of the people near her stared at her in surprise. Joannis spoke first. "That is it?"

Doctor Chakwas gave a small smile as she nodded. "Anaphylactic shock brought on by the exposure of eezo is my current guess. Current treatment is a endotracheal tube to facilitate breathing, while we attempt to remove the eezo from his system. How long that recovery will take is an open question, commander. So far we have removed very little of the eezo from his system. A milligram of the ten milligrams that emitter was supposed to have. And the test dose of epinephrine we gave him have not had any effect yet."

Joannis groaned, before running a hand through her hair as she thought. "Alright doc, looks like both of our eldar guests are in your hands. If you need anything, let me know. And I am authorizing you to contact medical command, in spite of any instructions to the contrary from Arlas, for assistance. The sooner we get his lanky, elfy ass back up, the sooner we can get that walker out of the med bay, and he can convince me that the cat's presence is necessary."

She watched the 'cat' turn its head to her and give her the most disgusted look she had ever seen on a feline's face, before turning its attention back to the eldar it was curled up beside. She sighed, and turned to Wrex and Tali, idly noting that most of the rest of the specialist team was in the common room. Realizing that everyone was already here, she nodded to Chakwas, before stepping forward. "Alright team, we may be down one member, but it isn't permanent, and we are more than just him. We are all the best and brightest of our respective fields, and I fully expect us to keep going, with or without the full might of our team. Saren is still out there, and he isn't going to wait for us to be at our best before he decides to fight us.

Tomorrow, we will be entering the Attican Beta sector, and making our way to the Hercules system. The System Alliance lost a scout frigate in the area to a geth patrol, and we are being sent in to recover what we can from it. Command isn't expecting survivors, but there are several isolated computers on board, and a cold probe was dumped with their scouting data according to the last logs they sent. Geth are expected, so prepare accordingly. Thankfully, we had a new mako delivered, an upgrade to the M35B, the M35D, which will let us bring everyone along as long as no one is taking up two seats. So this will be the first mission with the whole team deploying in the mako instead of the eldar's lander. I expect this to be a fairly standard mission, not the cluster frag we got on Feros with the Thorian."

* * *

Two days later, Joannis was cursing as she crouched in cover inside the crashed long range scout frigate, watching the HUD indicator for the mako sprinting for cover, chased by fire from two geth colossi. Wrex and Icivia were with her, while Jaclyn was with Ashley in the mako, leaving Garrus, Tali, Liara and Kaidan to hold another section of cover in the wreckage of the frigate. She poked her head up, counting a half dozen armatures, more than fifty infantry and the pair of colossi. She ducked to avoid another siege pulse, before turning as Wrex glared at her. "Standard mission, huh?"

"Wrex, shut up. _Normandy_ , this is Joannis, got a slew of geth closing, need some air support to thin them out."

Joker's reply was staticy but understandable, vindicating her decision to improve the ground team's scanners and comms, and she began firing at the geth trying to edge closer, buying time until Joker could make his strafing run. As she ducked another siege pulse, she reflected she had sort of earned this situation, tempting fate as she had. But even as she poked her head up, she spotted the _Normandy_ swooping down, lining up to bombard the geth with its weapons. Knowing Joker and the crew, they wouldn't leave much, but she stood up and began firing quickly at the geth. "Engage the geth, keep them from focusing on any of us."

She couldn't come out and say the Normandy was attacking, but her squad was smart enough to guess why she wanted the geth busy dodging bullets, rather than watching the sky.

* * *

In a distant system from the three spectres, a former spectre was having a very bad day. He glared at the communicator, but after a moment, the turian sighed. "Very well, I will send an executor of my company to secure the compound, they will be there within a week. You said the facility declared an Omega level emergency twelve hours ago?"

The salarian on the other end nodded, but didn't speak. Saren smirked softly, this administrator knew what happened to those that annoyed him, and Anoleis wanted to keep his steady flow of 'incentive' cash coming in. Saren hadn't bothered to tell him that it was about to end, one way or another, soon. "Right, keep the Board from doing anything for at least a week, and by then I will have troops there to deal with the problem."

Saren cut the feed, and tried to call his two plants inside the facility, but neither picked up. He frowned, before exerting his will, asking his vessel to send the elder asari slut to him. He needed her services one last time. He frowned as the ship didn't respond, but turned his head slightly as someone coughed behind him. "Ah, Benezia, I was just about to send for you. We have a problem on Noveria. I need you to go, get the information from the lab, and send it to me. The lab finally grew the bug, but apparently they didn't follow my orders, so something went wrong."

She stared at him for a moment, and he allowed himself to look her over one last time, admitting that while he preferred a woman with plates, she was good enough for relieving stress, and the scars added character to her otherwise flawless skin. He took a deep breath, calming the sudden rage as he remembered all the fighting, killing and dying from battlefields, while scheming asari whores like her laid around in luxury, reaping the benefits of all the good, honest, loyal turian men and women dying. He was less than pleased when she spoke up instead of leaving. "Unfortunately, we have another problem. My daughter has moved to have me legally removed as the head of the T'Soni line."

Saren groaned, his head pounding as the ship began turning its attention to its disobedient pet, and he spent a moment soothing its righteous anger, before turning his attention back to the asari bitch. "And what does that mean, Benezia?"

"You will lose access to my lineage's funds if I do not respond to the legal challenge."

Saren's head exploded in pain, and he came back to awareness with his claws around the useless toy's throat, forcing her to her knees and choking her. He let go as he regained control of his impulse to rip the failure's head from her shoulders with his bare claws, before returning to his chair, and communed with the ship, _Sovereign_. He ignored the pawn slowly getting to her feet, the blood trickling from the gashes his claws had made, focused only on the problem of suddenly losing more than three quarters of their funds. After he and the ship finished examining the facts, or rather he let the ship do it because it was so much faster than him, and would come to the same conclusion he eventually would, he released himself from its grip and stood up. "While we do not need the funds if our current plans succeed, they would jeopardize the plans to use the Conduit and assist Their return if we have to take longer than anticipated. You will return to wherever you need to in order to ensure you remain the head of your lineage, and return if you succeed. Otherwise, do not be taken alive. I will be sending what is left of your… 'huntresses,'" he said the word with unconcealed distaste, "with several of my men, and one of our… 'associates' to deal with the problem on Noveria."

The troops and play soldiers were already moving to the vessel that would ferry them, and a selection of geth fodder, to Noveria, while the asari skank took her own pathetic ship on her own. He didn't send any of her acolytes with her, not anticipating her success, but the distraction she would cause would throw people off the real trail. Especially if she caused significant damage. He quickly sent his plan to the ship, and had it program her course into the ship, so all she would need to do would be sit down, and either succeed in protecting the funds they might not even need any more, or die for the cause. Saren Arterius smirked slightly at the thought, amused at the thought of asari doing their own dirty jobs for a change.

He turned and watched the 'associate' chosen to replace Benezia stalk by, its four glowing golden eyes unwavering as it marched to the hangar bay, ready to do its master's bidding, crackles of red energy flashing around it. Saren smirked as he watched the creature, content in the knowledge he was saving his race from a fate worse than death, and getting his revenge on the other worthless races of the galaxy, especially the humans.

 _ **A/N**_ _\- Still not sorry. For the previous chapter :P_

 _Oh, and for those curious, the results of the tournament poll were 84.7% (or 39 votes) in favor of Arlas winning, and 15.2% (or 7) that wanted Arlas to get smacked around. So everyone go a little of what they wanted. Hurrah! :D_

 _And this was very much a case of the chapter that would not get frakking written. I spent more time on this chapter than any other four chapters in the story. And yes, that reaction Arlas had has been planned since I started the story. Is it a universal reaction? Well, that is the question, isn't it? :P_

 _Usual author requests go here, favorite, follow, review, like, tell all your friends, vote, etc._


	26. Arrival on Noveria

**Chapter 25 - Arrival on Noveria**

' _Don't worry men, Tyranids are only as dangerous as a razor slug if you keep your wits about you.' - Imperial Guard sergeant Merrick, seconds before being torn apart by a Tyranid lictor, Dawn of War 2_

Arlas woke up as the ship jolted, though it took at least a few minutes before he could clear his head enough to start waking up. During that time, someone removed something from his mouth and throat, and helped him sit up. Arlas tolerated their 'assistance' until they put a drinking tube in his mouth, giving him water, and he took long, slow sips from it, letting his parched body take every last drop in. He had whoever was helping him get two more, before he finally could speak without a rasping cough rendering him unintelligible. "How long?"

He immediately recognized the soft and husky voice as Liara. "A bit longer than three days. It took two of those to get the eezo out of your body, and another day for you to recover."

He blinked the lethargy from his eyes, forcing his body to move and respond. "Where are we?"

"The medbay of the Normandy."

Arlas couldn't stop the flash of irritation he sent, as he sat up, ignoring the burn in his muscles as he moved for the first time under his own power in days. "I meant the ship."

"Oh, just landed on Noveria. We got a lead here on Saren, and three Spectres were going to see the local…"

Jaclyn's voice came over the ship's paging system. "Team Goons, disembark. Now. Come out ready for trouble."

Arlas rolled his eyes as he stood up, and smirked softly as Liara sighed in annoyance. "Sounds like a normal mission."

Liara just sighed, and handed him the tabard he had been wearing when he had collapsed. "I would prefer fewer explosions and lengthier studies on assignments, frankly. Also more understanding and support from my comrades."

Arlas gave her an amused look as he pulled his tabard on, but didn't answer as he turned to the human healer. "Free to go?"

Doctor Chakwas gave him a flat stare, before nodding. "See if you can go another week without needing my services. Surprise me and the betting pool."

Arlas frowned, before looking at Liara as she headed to her cubicle at the back of the medbay, then back to the doctor, and finally at the gyrinx that was doing its best to pretend he didn't exist. "What betting pool?"

* * *

Arlas arrived at his ship, his thoughts irritated. He couldn't twist a straight answer out of the mon-keigh if he tried. No one had answered his question about a betting pool, and he still didn't know what a monkey was. He sighed to himself, before grabbing his weapons on instinct, and then frowning. He had his fusion gun, death spinner, his flamer pistols, and his sword. Apparently he wasn't going to be sitting at the back of the group today. He tapped his omnitool, opening a communication line to the Twins. "Twins, Arlas. Any recommendations?"

Jaclyn closed her line immediately, but Joannis replied. "We are currently locked down in the Admin building. Local administrator is crooked, and stonewalling us, so we are trying to bypass him. It is going to take time though."

Arlas listened as he set the weapons on the work table, before turning to his armor. He grabbed the first jump jet, and began attaching it to his armor, as Joannis continued. "So we are looking at a couple hours to figure out a way around him. Currently on our way to meet a couple Spectres already on the planet, see if they have any advice. So get ready to move, though with the constant snow storms and winds, we might stick with the Mako instead of taking the lander."

The eldar acknowledge the review of the situation, and continued to work on his armor, though he did send a thought to the wraithguard in the medical bay. *( _Having fun up there?_ )*

The utter contempt Kap'Eiyl sent back made him respond with mirth. *( _So, feeling like you are using your time well? Stopping the horrible mon-keigh from stealing our secrets, not that they could anyway._ )*

Arlas could feel Kap'Eiyl ignoring his barbs, so he stopped teasing the spirit. *( _More seriously, attaching spectre jets to my armor, suggestions?_ )*

* _Beyond don't? Those take twenty years to become proficient with. In a training setting. And you think you can just slap them on an armor set not balanced for them, and make it work?_ *

Arlas paused, sending his thoughtful silence for a moment, before allowing amusement. *( _Yes?_ )*

He knew antagonizing the spirit warrior was not the best idea, but he was of the Path of the Outcast. It was his job to poke, prod, and force his people to adapt. Kap'Eiyl's reply of consuming anger simply indicated he was doing his job. Arlas let the link fade, before turning his attention back to the four main jets and eight secondary jets. A quick review of a recording crystal, which he had walked around the Shadow Spectre armor twice with, showed exactly where each jet was supposed to be on the original armor. By the time Kap'Eiyl got back, twenty minutes after Arlas had stopped his sending, he already had the two main shoulder jets mounted and secured as well as three of the smaller one, and was checking the connections.

He paused to help secure the wraithguard in its stand, before moving Kap'Eiyl's crystal to the armor. He then immediately did the mental equivalent of plugging his ears, as Kap'Eiyl snarled at him. * _What by Khaine's severed fist are you thinking? The mountings aren't directly to the armor. Why are you using connectors on the smaller jump jets instead of a hard mounting?_ *

Arlas leaned over and pushed one of the jets in question, tilting it nearly forty degrees to one side before it stopped, and then rotating it twenty degrees up, before letting it return to its resting position. *( _Added maneuverability._ )*

Arlas hadn't been aware a spirit could groan in mental agony, and made a note to explore that discovery further at a later time. It took another hour to put the remaining thrusters on the armor, now that he had Kap'Eiyl's reluctant help, though the veteran shadow spectre insisted he was insane for even attempting such an augmentation to rune armor. Arlas had simply snapped back that this didn't even make the list of one hundred most insane things he had ever attempted, before quietly admitting it was close though.

As he did a quick check on the armor, his omnitool pinged. He tapped the button, and let Jaclyn talk. "Arlas, what kind of weather is your lander rated for?"

He sent a quick thought to Yol'Pvera, before replying. "If your people can live on it, my lander can more than handle it. I assume you wish me to transport the team to wherever we are going?"

"Wrong, but close. You are transporting Team Light. Team Heavy will be taking our Mako, whenever we finally do get clearance to leave. Also, bring that wraithguard of yours, I want to know if it is any good in a real fight."

He frowned, before replying. "Denied, Kap'Eiyl has another assignment, though he is out of the medbay."

Jaclyn exhaled past the microphone before replying. "Acceptable. Though next mission, he comes."

Arlas just rolled his eyes, before beginning to pull on pieces of his armor. A few minutes of work, and he stepped out into the empty hangar, ready to try the jets for the first time; it wasn't like they would be that different from a hoverbike. He stepped into the cleared area, and set the power feed to the jump jets to one percent before pushing power to them.

He regained awareness on the other side of the hangar with Kap'Eiyl and Yol'Pvera's hysterical laughter ringing in his head, buried under a stack of crates which were thankfully empty, several of which were badly dented. The fire alarm was wailing, and he was being doused in the chemicals that had been stored in a fire suppression pipe that had broken. Before he could do more than struggle to his feet, Tali and the human engineer in charge of the power system dashed into the room, carrying red cylinders. They both paused, staring at the devastation, and then at him. He coughed, as he continued to climb out of the collapsed pile of crates. "Minor armor system malfunction."

Kap'Eiyl finally managed to stop laughing long enough to send something, Yol'Pvera still unable to stop laughing. * _That was awe-inspiring, like watching the Avatar use a chaos marine as a projectile. I am so glad I activated a recording crystal. A prodigy you are not._ *

Tali's head tilted to one side and her eyes narrowed, as the human continued to gape at him. Then Tali hosed him down with a white vapor from the red cylinder she was carrying. "Minor? That was MINOR!?"

Arlas yelped as the cloud enveloped him, not expecting the attack, before warp jumping behind her, and grabbing the cylinder and yanking it away from her. "What are you doing?"

She hissed up at him. "Stopping a bosh'tet from tearing a hole in the hull."

The quarian gestured to the side of the hangar, and when he looked he noted he had actually put a slight dent in the hangar door. Not much of one, only a centimeter at most, and it didn't deform the door enough to breach the hanger, but Arlas was impressed he had managed to put one in it all the same. A quick check revealed that he had hit with his shoulder, rather than the jets, and the armor had actually dampened the blow enough that it only felt like a bruise. Still, denting the metal the mon-keigh designated as frigate armor with his body alone implied there was a lot of power in the jets. Likely because the other two main drains on the system, the warp generator and rune armor, weren't active, so he had pulled one percent of the total power, instead of just a tiny amount.

He frowned, ignoring the two beings waiting for an explanation as he set up permanent base power divisions, though he would easily be able to manipulate the actual levels if required. He returned to the center of the hangar, and set the power to the jets to minimum rather than a hard number. The human looked at Tali as he pulsed the eight smaller gets, getting a feel for them. "If he dents the hangar again, I am opening the back and throwing him out."

Tali simply nodded. "I will help, Adams. Though perhaps we should wait until he explains the dents to the commanders first?"

Arlas rolled his eyes inside his helmet, ignoring the spectators, before pushing power to the jets again. This time he rose steadily into the air, wobbling slightly as the jets twitched. It was difficult to control them, but Arlas quickly began experimenting with trying to move around. His first attempt to maneuver in the air led to him impacting his arm against the lander almost immediately, and when he reflexively tried to grab it to stabilize, the change in the thrust from a smaller jet, caused him to start pinwheeling through the air again. This time, however, he remained conscious and cut the power to the jump jets, and twisted as he fell to land on his feet.

Engineer Adams was recording with his omnitool, but it was Tali that spoke. "Something tells me that is not something you have done before, Elfy."

He ignored the nickname as he returned to his starting position. "Second attempt. Now for third."

"Wait, so your first attempt was why you dented the hangar door?"

He was already in the air, and didn't answer the question, instead pouring power into the jets for attempt number three. An hour later, he landed gently, able to do some basic maneuvers now in the air with the jets, but using his omnitool or a weapon would still unbalance him, and recovering from that was hard without cutting the jets and landing. Kap'Eiyl sent his unamused approval. * _Well, you are learning faster than I expected. Though I suspect it is due to your skill with a jetbike and your outcast training rather than inherent talent with the jet pack._ *

Arlas glanced at his omnitool as it buzzed, and replied before tapping the button. *( _As long as it works, I don't care how I got it._ )*

"Arlas here, doctor, what do you need?"

Doctor Chakwas glared at something off screen, as she replied. "Yes, get that artifact out of my medlab. It started singing again, and the grynix is not amused by it."

"Acknowledged, on my way. And it is gyrinx, not grynix."

He stepped into the elevator, and a few minutes later entered the medbay. The gyrinx turned to glare at him like he knew Arlas was responsible for the 'singing,' the eldar woman was shifting uncomfortably, Doctor Chakwas was glaring at him because she knew he was responsible for the discomfort of her patient, and he could hear the artifact ovaloid singing again. He frowned, before heading to the cabinet storing the psyker artifact. "Doctor, is this the first time it has started singing again since it came on the ship?"

"Yes, now please remove it."

He shrugged, and removed the egg, idly noting a discoloration on it, but put it out of his mind as he headed for the elevator. A moment later, he placed the egg down in a clear space in his room, as the armory was starting to get crowded. He then did a quick check of the supplies he had stored in the room, before nodding to himself. _Enough water for a couple months, and food for a month. I might want to consider adding more. Later though, first, back to training._

Arlas' plans, however, were quickly derailed, as when he opened the airlock in the lander, he saw Liara, Tali, Ashley, and Kaidan taking seats in the troop bay. He looked down at his omnitool, before looking at the others. "I assume there is a reason for this?"

Arlas' omnitool finally vibrated, and a quick check showed both Twins opening a call with him. He sighed, and shut the door, before tapping his omnitool, and then turning the volume down. Jaclyn did not disappoint. " **Why the fuck did you damage my ship?** "

Arlas sighed before tapping another button, closing the call as he sat down at the pilot's station. Another chime indicated that he was being called back, and he accepted this call, speaking before they could. "First, do not take that tone with me, you are neither a senior exarch nor a farseer, I am an ally, and I can change that to neutral if that doesn't appeal to you. Second, it is a couple millimeters deep dent in the hangar door, and a handful of dented, empty crates. Third, I was calibrating a new system for my armor and didn't expect that powerful a response from the jump jets. Fourth, where are we going? I have the rest of the ground team in my lander, and assume you wish them to meet you."

Jaclyn didn't respond but her twin did. "Sent you a map, you can just follow the SHIT GETH! Wrex, left side, left side!"

Arlas frowned at the sudden shift, listening to the sudden sounds of combat in what he had been told was an independent but relatively safe colony. He tapped a button before stepping into the troop bay, increasing the volume. "Vasir, big white geth, stasis it! Garrus, get that hopper. Jaclyn, assist Vasir with the Prime. Dilteer, keep the geth off Garrus. I got the Grizzly."

He leaned against the wall as everyone else in the troop bay listened, their conversations stopped when the door had opened for him again. The battle took very little time, the geth likely hadn't anticipated so many people trying to leave the facility so had only left a dozen units or so behind. It took a moment after the fight Joannis to get back to him, apparently having to discuss something with whoever the two new names were. "Arlas, still there?"

"You didn't finish your orders."

A sigh echoed through the communication line. "Fair enough. The map shows the destination, and we know a group of krogan, asari, and turians came through here with an 'executor' about four days ago with about a dozen large shipping crates. Considering we located one of the crates, as well as a dozen geth, we can guess the crates contained more geth and probably weapons for the 'assistants.' Tali, how many geth could fit inside a standard freight shipping container?"

Tali tapped away for a moment, before wincing. "Depending on the size of the chassi? They could put four armatures per crate, or as many as five dozen troopers. Geth don't need to breath, and as long as they have a hopper, or any of the larger models inside it, the scanners wouldn't have picked up anything."

There was a moment of silence, before an unfamiliar voice spoke up. "So you have a fair sized army between you and Peak 15. Thinking you might have room for another?"

Another voice spoke up. "Make that *hiss* room for two *hiss* more?"

Arlas rolled his eyes, before coughing. "Anything else, Commander? Or should we go ahead to the destination?"

"Go ahead Arlas, we will meet you there."

Arlas closed the communication line, before looking at the others. "Make sure you have everything you need, we leave in five minutes."

* * *

Arlas sighed at the sound of multiple thumps from the troop bay, and snapped a thought to his passengers. * _I said we were leaving in five minutes. Who wasn't sitting?_ *

Tali replied, amusement coloring her voice. "Ashley and Kaidan. Mind slowing and leveling out so they can at least stand up and try to get to their seats?"

Arlas sent back his displeasure, before complying. Yol'Pvera was actually flying the lander, he was simply providing overwatch. Not that he could do much, considering all he could see was flurries of white from the raging blizzard. He felt the craft shudder as a particularly bad crosswind hit it, the engines pulsing as Yol'Pvera tried to keep them on course. * _I begin to understand why Joannis asked about the lander's capabilities._ *

Arlas gave a dry mental chuckle before sending his agreement. *( _How are we doing?_ )*

* _About halfway there, and most eldar vessels would be able to handle this wind and cold. I am more worried about…_ *

Arlas felt a sudden spike of dread, and grabbed the control yoke, yanking it to the left and back towards him, rolling the vessel into a screaming dive. He felt Yol'Pvera yank the ship out of the dive in time to avoid several rocky spikes, but he was more concerned about the bullets arcing through the airspace they had just vacated. He put his thoughts to the troop bay as well as his co-pilot. *( _Anti-air just took a swipe at us. No hits, but I did not see where they came from._ )*

* _Turrets and walker tanks set up along the cliffs, significant overhangs make air assaults feasible only through the turrets' fields of fire. Unless you want to bury them in avalanches._ *

Arlas watched several bursts of light briefly light up the blizzard, missiles if he had to guess, but the weapons hadn't tracked the lander. After a moment, he tapped his omnitool, calling the ground team. Icivia picked up first. "Icivia here Arlas, what is it?"

"Geth entrenched around the map marker, unable to land due to anti-air. Orders?"

"Wait one."

Twenty seconds later, Jaclyn joined the conversation. "Assuming you can't make an attack run."

"Unknown, blizzard hampering sensors too much to determine conditions near geth. And I might cause an avalanche with the heavier weapons."

A moment of silence, before the sound of a cannon resounded through the comm, and Jaclyn spoke again. "Alright, hold position. We are slowly making our way up the mountain path. Visibility is shit, but the new mako's shields are tough enough that even when they ambush us, we still win. The shields take forever to recharge though. So we are looking at about four hours to go the six kilometers to the facility, assuming we keep finding geth as often as we do, and take the same damage. If you could get some kind of scans to let us know where the geth are dug in though…"

Arlas hissed, before glaring at the spirit stone in the cockpit. "I don't have enough expertise to do that, but I know someone that can. We will send you an uplink if we get it to work."

He quickly turned off the communication channel, and plugged his mental 'ears.' Just in time for Yol'Pvera to explode at him. * _Absolutely NOT._ _I will NOT accept a mon-keigh anywhere but the bay._ *

Arlas sighed, before replying with carefully chosen words. *( _Can you find the geth emplacements and send it to the humans? In this blizzard? I know I can not._ )*

He waited a moment for her to speak, before continuing. *( _But I am certain Tali can. All she will be allowed to access is the sensors. You fly, I will block her access, and we both keep the ship from exploding. And her head too, if we can spare the focus._ )*

Sadly, his last comment didn't even get a flicker of amusement from the spirit eldar, and he simply opened a communication line to the troop bay. "Tali to the cockpit."

After a moment of no one moving, he spoke again. "Tali to cockpit, need your help with sensors."

That got Tali to the cockpit faster than a Crimson Hunter warrior being told that orcs were attacking with only fighta-bombas and carriers. It took a couple seconds to disconnect from the lander, and he pushed the currently only chair in the cockpit back before turning to face her. Tali spoke before he could her voice laced with doubt. "This is the cockpit?"

Arlas paused, before looking around. The cockpit was fair sized for an eldar craft and split into two levels. The first level was the forward, lower level, containing the wraithbone chair and console for the 'pilot', which only had a couple small levers, switches, and a pair of control yokes, and Yol'Pvera's spirit stone. The second level was only a half meter higher, and was where Tali was standing. Usually the co-pilot's chair would be there, with an identical console with more switches and only one control yoke, but it hadn't been included as Yol'Pvera was the actual pilot, and he was just supporting her.

The eldar shrugged, before putting one hand on the wall to his right, the console built into the wall to give him a walkway since the lander was for extended missions so he didn't have to open the canopy to get out, and twisted the energies in the ship to give Tali a seat and console. The quarian yelped and jumped back as the floor in front of her shifted and began swelling, watching with wide eyes as the material ballooned upwards, before deflating into a seat and console. After a moment, Arlas sighed, ignoring the utter disdain from his fellow eldar. "Tali, sit, unless you want to let Kaidan come up and try his hand at the sensors."

The threat had Tali move so fast he barely noted her transitioning between standing and sitting. He chuckled, before standing and moving to stand behind Tali. He put one hand on her shoulder, then another on the wall beside him, ignoring the feel of the ship shifting suddenly to avoid more fire from the geth, and the shifting of the woman under him as his hand rest on her. He mentally frowned as he realized the significant shift that thought represented, as she was a woman in his head, not a mon-keigh, but dismissed it to concentrate on the current problem, linking a mon-keigh to an eldar system.

Arlas knew the sensors were calibrated to find, in order, minds, heat, and metal. None of which the geth would show up on in these conditions. He instinctively glanced at what the sensors were reporting, but all it was detecting were massive amounts of cold air, and lots of metal. The mountain must have a metal road to prevent the path to the facility from getting easily destroyed, and seemed to have significant metal deposits just under the snow. Or the entire mountain was covered in thousands of geth, including three readings that seemed to be seventy meters tall. He shuddered slightly at that thought; he was not prepared to fight a titan class opponent.

Taking a deep breath, he isolated the sensor system, as much to keep Tali from wandering off into other systems as to keep Yol'Pvera and the resident warp spiders from trying to kill her. Then he linked Tali into the sensor system, and waited for her mind to adjust.

* * *

Joannis looked down as her omnitool pinged, showing Arlas was calling her. "Arlas, Joannis, what is the story on feeding us geth positions?"

"No good. Sensors aren't calibrated for the environment, and the geth are using too little power for me to find them among the massive amounts of raw metal in the mountain. Tali had a negative reaction to trying to interface with the sensor suite, will be combat capable before you make the target area. We will be nearby, so call if you need a strafing run."

Joannis sighed, as she pulsed the jump jets of the mako, dodging a siege pulse, before Garrus replied with the main cannon with significantly improved accuracy. Looking at Jaclyn at the electronic counter and warfare console, she saw her twin frowning. With a sigh, she backed the mako up, and settled in to wait until the shields recharged again. "Right, we are making better time than expected, but it will still take a couple hours."

With a sigh, she brought out her omnitool, and began making a few notes as she waited, two on the geth, and another about the eldar sensors. After a few minutes, the shields beeped, indicating they were at full strength again, and she set out, driving slowly as the blizzard made it nearly impossible to see anything. After a few minutes of slowly crawling forward, the mako suddenly rocked as a siege pulse slammed into the front barriers, and Garrus replied with the main cannon. Joannis sighed, this was going to take forever.

* * *

Three hours later, Joannis rolled the mako to a stop, staring at the entrance to Peak 15, listening to Garrus whistle in surprise. "That looks like a pretty effective 'keep out' sign if I have ever seen one."

Jaclyn snorted in amusement as Joannis opened a communication line to the lander. "Joannis to Arlas, got eyes on the objective. Going to be…"

She threw the mako in reverse and stomped the accelerator, throwing the mako back around a corner as three entrenched weapons suddenly pivoted and began obliterating the area where the mako had been seconds before. Once around the corner, she continued. "Sorry about that, geth said hi. Going to be a bit of a fight to get in. Saw a pair of armatures, a couple destroyers, and three new platforms, same size as an armature, but with two long barrels instead of a flashlight head. Looks to be a rapid fire anti-air unit."

"Yes, I encountered them before, but didn't see them before we were forced out of range. Suggestions?"

"Hit them from two directions at once."

The long silence indicated Arlas' enthusiasm for the idea, before he spoke. "Activate a beacon, and send me the scans of the area. I doubt you want me burying the entrance of the facility with an avalanche."

* * *

Arlas warp jumped out of the cockpit, landing on the snow immediately in front of the lander. Thanks to the scans the Twins had managed to do before they had been driven back, he knew the terrain around the facility well enough to start doing his job. What he was not ready for was how quickly the cold bit through his armor and undersuit. He grimaced in pain, before running forward, around the rocky protrusion that had hidden the lander from the geth, and nearly screamed as the wind seemed to directly flay nerves like a scourge used by one of his fallen kin.

He ran forward, before jumping down the cliff, falling nearly twenty meters before pulsing his jump jets to arrest some of his momentum. He still landed heavily and off balance, staggering a few steps before dashing forward. He slid to a stop behind a rock, and looked around, before cursing under his breath. The Twins had said there were three turrets, two armatures, and two destroyers, but he could only see two turrets. He took a second look around, before sprinting to the nearest turret, the one closest to the path the ground transport was taking, pulling out one of his melta bombs. He carefully placed it between two of the six supporting legs, the wraithbone fusing to the metal as he activated the melta, before carefully moving around toward the second turret, taking an oblique path to try and avoid setting off any alarms or sensors.

He was halfway across when both turrets smoothly pivoted toward him, their barrels dipping to squarely target him, firing. He threw himself into a warp jump, feeling the last shell glancing off his chest plate, and landed behind a rock that would give him at least temporary cover. He winced as he felt the cold starting to make him sluggish, and opened his comms even as he detonated the melta bomb. "Turret closest you down, push."

He fought off a shiver as he drew his fusion gun and pistol, before sticking the pistol around the corner to blindly fire at the turret, just to remind it that he was still alive and kicking. Then he heard a loud thump followed by an explosion, and the turret stopped firing at him. He poked his head up, and just barely spotted the turret in the swirling snow storm, its turret swinging around as the mako fired the main cannon again, its repeaters chattering as they tried to chip away at the powerful barriers on the turret. Arlas waited until the turret fired again, before warp jumping around behind the turret. He quickly fired the fusion gun, and then jumped back to cover behind the rock.

After a moment of silence, punctuated only by the boom of the mako's cannon, he poked his head back out to see what he had done. He was remarkably impressed when the turret didn't fall over or explode, but it did have a fairly large hole through it. What was more impressive was the fact its barriers were still working. He quickly keyed up his omnitool again. "Turret down, cease fire."

The mako slowly stopped firing its repeaters, though the main cannon didn't shoot again. At his signal, the lander swooped around to land, and then it fired its scatter laser turret, gutting the remains of the turret. *( _Yol'Pvera, we were about to capture that turret for study._ )*

All he got back was a feeling of smugness, making him sigh in vexation before he warp jumped into the lander to warm up. "Arlas to Twins, Yol'Pvera took exception to the turret still having power. Turret destroyed."

Tali immediately started swearing profusely at him and his eldar companions in quarian, apparently forgetting that he could understand it all. He waited until Tali finished and after warming up enough to not stammer before suddenly looking over at her. "I don't think most of those were anatomically possible."

Tali's embarrassed whimper was amusing, and everyone else jumped out to pile into the door into the hangar of the Peak 15 facility. Arlas replaced his expended melta bomb, just in time to hear his communicator crackle as the group breached the Peak 15 hangar. "Shit, geth turret! Find cover people."

Wondering how they had managed to get the geth turret into the hangar with a burning transport blocking the door, he kept rearming himself. A quick glance to the side showed that the geth long rifle was in its rack, so with a sigh he grab the sniper rifle. Not that he expected to get to use it much, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. He warp jumped into the airlock that connected the hangar to the outside as he finished rearming, before opening his mind. He could feel the entire ground team spread out through the hangar in small groups, though he could feel a pair of individuals on their own that he didn't recognize, as well as several other minds that felt… wrong somehow.

Done finding his allies and opponents, he leaned against the wall to stay out of the firing line, before opening the door. And swearing up a storm as dozens of bullets screamed through suddenly open door. He hated smart enemies, preferring ones that were dumber than him. He cursed even louder when the firing suddenly tracked to the side, putting noticeable dents in the wall he was using as cover, but relaxed as the turret moved on to another target, rather than trying to cut him down through the wall.

A quick glance around the corner showed the geth were well entrenched, the two destroyers, armatures and the turret from outside having reinforced a pair of geth primes, and several dozen standard platforms. A handful of krogan provided close combat support and a turian sniper was assisting in directing the battle. The turian was keeping Garrus suppressed with his rifle, while the rest of the geth suppressed the rest of the team, trying to get the krogan into melee and shotgun range. Simple, brutal and effective, but they apparently had forgotten that he was present. He flipped his cloak's hood up and fed it power, dropping from vision, before carefully unlimbering the long rifle.

He announced his presence by shooting the enemy sniper in the head, the overpowered rifle shot punching completely through the target's barrier, lightly armored helmet, head, and then burying itself in the ceiling beyond the target. Done with his priority target, he turned to the turret, and then ducked back into cover as two rockets screamed through the space he had just been occupying, as well as another flurry of bullets. As the turret attempted to kill him, several biotic explosions ripped through the enemy ranks, significantly thinning out the number of geth as the turret detonated, before Garrus, Icivia and a volus tore apart the krogan still trying to press forward.

Then the volus suddenly poked his head up, turning it to both sides like he was counting the number of geth, before he then confidently strode into the open, his two submachines chattering as he focused down a geth rocket trooper. Every geth with a clear sight lines, a half dozen geth troopers and a destroyer, turned and fired, burning through the volus' barriers, but a wave of his omnitool and the barriers came right back to full strength. Then he started spinning like a top, tossing out omnitool attacks and firing his submachine guns, tearing through the geth that had fired at him, even as an asari suddenly biotically charged the geth destroyer, blasting its destroyed chassi across the hangar. Arlas reached out to Kap'Eiyl as he watched a single volus obliterate over a dozen geth without even appearing to try. *( _Remember our reactions to the volus?_ )*

A wordless reply of agreement came from the spirit, as well as a underlying feeling of shock. *( _Either that one is the equivalent of an exarch, or we seriously underestimated their battlefield potential._ )*

Another emotion of agreement, before Arlas stepped out of the airlock. He watched the Twins and Icivia approach the two new mon-keigh. Joannis spoke first. "Good showing. Think you can find what you two were looking for here, or would like to press deeper with us?"

The asari sauntered over, idly pausing to put her boot heel through a geth's head. "I saw the crates I was looking for earlier, but I doubt Dilteer is going to find what he needs out here."

The volus looked up from the geth prime chassi they were scanning. "Truely. *gasp* I doubt I need *gasp* to go that deep in *wheeze* though."

Arlas was certain the story of why they had picked those two up was absolutely fascinating if someone cared. He dropped his cloak, and moved over to join the others, ignoring the curious looks from the two newcomers. Joannis spoke. "Alright people, two teams here… Arlas, that new armor?"

"Modified my original."

"Does it have barriers?"

He just sighed, and tilted his head, waiting for her to get on with it. After a second, she smirked and nodded. "Fair enough. We are going to have three teams for this mission. Garrus, Liara and Kaidan, stay here and make sure nothing comes in behind us, Kaidan is in charge of team Reserve. We might have missed geth on the path, and we don't want to be flanked. You can wait either in the hangar or the mako. Tali and Ashley, you will be team Evidence and will be helping Spectre Dilteer hack through the local files once we get to the mainframe, Ashley will be handling security once the rest of us go hunting for Saren's executor. We have no idea who that is, video showed only a cloaked and hooded figure entering the two hangar bays, but we think it might be Matriarch Benezia."

Liara looked up, her face conflicted, but Joannis silenced her with a sympathetic look before continuing. "Seeing how she has been instrumental in Saren's plot so far, taking her alive is an objective, but she is an asari matriarch, and likely won't be easy to subdue, if it is even possible. Push comes to shove, I will settle for bringing everyone on my side home, though we will make all reasonable attempts to force her to surrender. However if she was going to desert, she would likely have already. The rest of us are Team Capture."

She looked over at the new asari and volus, before tilting her head slightly. "Is division of personnel acceptable, Spectres Vasir and Dilteer?"

The volus shrugged, while the asari actually replied. "Actually, taking Dr. T'Soni with us would be a better idea. Give us more biotic boom, which the geth really can't counter. And I can keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't get too badly hurt."

Liara shot the asari Spectre a glare, but the older asari simply ignored her. After a moment to share a look with her twin, Joannis looked at Liara. "Your choice, Liara. No one on the ship will think less of you for whichever you pick."

Liara didn't even hesitate in making her decision. "I need to come. I need to hear my mother justify her actions. And if she can't, then I need to… deal with her."

Arlas approved of both her resolve and the speed of reaching it, and could feel the asari spectre did as well. The other spectres were also supportive of the idea, though Joannis was worried about the young asari. But Joannis didn't dwell on it. "Alright then, you stay with the main team then. That means me and Jaclyn, Icivia, Arlas, Wrex, and Liara will be pushing ahead until we encounter Saren's people. Vasir, will you want to come as well?"

The spectre considered it for a moment, before shrugging, glancing at him with apparent disinterest, but he could almost hear her thoughts about observing him without even activating his psyker abilities. "Sure, might as well. No one gives the asari a bad name and gets away from me."

Joannis frowned at the other asari. "Remember, we want to take her alive if reasonable."

The asari gave a flippant wave of her hand, as Joannis turned to the others. "Alright, everyone, let's move out. Wrex first, Jaclyn, Vasir, Liara, myself, and then Icivia. Arlas, you are floating, either be where we need you most, or be scouting. I want to know about fights before we get to them."

Arlas nodded, before flipping his hood up and providing power to the cloak, vanishing from view and causing the asari and volus to start. Vasir suddenly smirked. "So that is why Huntress command was so interested him and his tech. Huh, I might actually have fun this time."

* * *

Arlas was only four rooms in, about two minutes ahead of the rest, but already he could tell it was going to be one of **those** missions. Two small anti-personnel turrets in the hallway leading in, but pointing toward the facility, not the entrance. A broken window, which was supposed to be effectively shatter proof, but looked like it had been **melted**. And now he had found a half liquified geth chassis, another scattered about the room in pieces no bigger than the palm of his hand. But most damningly, there was absolutely no clue as to what had caused any of it. He couldn't sense any heat sources or minds, but he could hear something psychically singing. Very muted, but just barely perceptible.

After a moment, he stood up from the destroyed geth, and continued deeper into the facility. "Arlas to Joannis. Fourth room, two destroyed geth, no signs of source. Moving deeper."

The next room was a simple curving hallway, but the next one made him nod to himself. "Arlas to Joannis, sixth room is a server room. Still no contacts. Three paths, suggestions?"

Joannis replied. "Last of us are coming up the elevator from the garage. Wait in the server room for us. Still no contacts?"

"None."

The new asari spoke. "That is not unlikely. There were one hundred seven listed personnel in the lab. Eight days ago at least. Whatever triggered the omega protocol would have had that time to pick off survivors."

Arlas frowned. "What was the personnel distribution?"

"Twenty three eggheads, twenty one janitors, a dozen general scrubs, fourteen administrative flunkies, and thirty seven security fodder."

 _More than a third were security?_ Arlas frowned at that thought, before shaking his head. Unless they were experimenting on something nasty like orks, they should have at least killed a couple of them. _So where were the bodies, of either side?_ He frowned again, his head turning to the flooring, the grating allowing him to see under the floor. For a second, he thought he had spotted something moving, but it was gone before even he could see it, if it had been anything other than a shifting of the lights. That though made him look up, noting the ceiling was grating as well, and one of the lights was shifting slightly.

Arlas frowned, drawing his fusion gun, and backing toward one of the walls. His dangersense wasn't pinging, but his instincts were screaming at him.

Something was watching him.

Not hostile, but definitely unfriendly. Like how an exodite would watch him. After a second, he reached up and shoved the ceiling grate above him to one side, before jumping up and looking around.

Nothing was visible as he clung to the ceiling with one arm, even when he switched between vision modes. But he saw something more concerning than the empty space should have been. He saw several ventilation shafts leading away from the rooms, and one of them had a very unusual dent in it. In fact it looked a little like claw marks…

"What are you doing, Elfy?"

Arlas dropped down to look, his fusion gun snapping to the voice, before relaxing and dropping to the ground as he saw it was Joannis. "Something was up there."

The rest of the group trooped in, not bothering to listen. "Did you actually see anything?"

He gave a sigh, before shaking his head. "Not directly."

"Then until it is a confirmed presence, we proceed as planned. Tali, Dilteer, get that main VI up, I want to know what they were doing here."

"Your *wheeze* quarian is already..."

The core suddenly hummed loudly, before a standard female VI interface popped up. "It appears you are trying to restart this mainframe. Do you require assistance?"

Jaclyn sighed, before slapping her palm to her forehead and groaning. "Ah, crap. A popup ad."

Her comment got a few weak chuckles, as Joannis began interrogating the VI. "Council Spectre Joannis, I need this mainframe up immediately."

"Alert: VI running on local backup power. Unable to fully restart mainframe without main power. Error: Landlines severed. Error: Main power offline. Errors must be corrected to fully restart mainframe."

Jaclyn sighed. "Of course they do, why can't this shit ever be simple? Why is there always strings attached?"

Wrex snorted in amusement. "Because it would be boring otherwise. Makes you appreciate us mercs that just ask for credits."

Joannis finished interrogating the VI, and turned around. "Alright, new assignments. Wrex, Jaclyn and Icivia will be heading top side to fix the landlines. Dilteer, Ashley and Vasir, stay here to get the main computer online as soon as you can. Tali, Liara, Arlas, you three will be coming with me to fix the main power. Alright, everyone move out."

As they left, Joannis tuned her communicator to only talk to the people in her fireteam. "Alright, this might be simple, might not, depends on what went wrong. Tali, you stay in the middle, you are the only one that can fix the more dangerous problems. Arlas has point, me and Liara will bring up the rear. Arlas, try to not block the path with the melty gun."

He sighed, unconsciously correcting her terminology even as he headed out. "Fusion gun."

"Whatever."

The walk was short, and a quick elevator took them down a level to an enclosed room. "Do we even know what is wrong?"

"Only that the power is off. Stay alert, I doubt it turned itself off."

Arlas sighed, before doing a quick mental scan of the next room. "Nothing alive in there that I can sense."

He tapped the left door control to open it, and found himself staring at a shotgun wielding destroyer. He dove to one side, snap firing his fusion gun, and heard the geth fire at the same time. Then there was a scream of tortured metal, followed a few seconds later be a loud clang. Arlas took a quick glance through the door. Or what was left of it, his snapshot had been a bit low and taken out the door, part of the frame, and a section of the suspended metal floor beyond the door. A quick glance down showed the shoulders and head of the destroyer geth, three floors below. He shrugged at the women as they all glared at him, before heading to the other door. "I will aim higher."

"What did I just say about blocking the path?"

"That I shouldn't test my armor against a shotgun."

He ignored the others behind him as he opened the next door, but this one didn't open to a waiting enemy. Instead it simply opened to a metal grating. Joannis kept talking. "Arlas, put the melty gun away and use something else."

"Would you prefer the rifle that can penetrate three meters of metal, or the power sword that cuts through metal like flesh?"

He could feel her surprise, before she replied, as Tali stepped around him to start examining the power plant. "You have the two pistols and that big cannon looking thing."

"A flamer pistol, a death spinner, and the double pistol is used with the power sword. Yes, let's set everything on fire in the power plant, I am certain that couldn't possible cause any problems. And the death spinner is only good against unarmored, unshielded foes. Neither of which are the geth."

That thankfully ended the conversation, though he could feel the human glaring at him, making him suspect that she was going to start managing his weapons if this mission didn't justify his weapon choices. So far, it certainly had not.

Tali rounded the corner ahead, and came back around even faster, her shotgun discharging as fast as she could fire. "GETH!"

Arlas swore, the main silo was blocking his line of sight, but there were two paths. Tali and the others were moving to block one, leaving him to take the other. His path abruptly stopped at the hole he had melted, but it was simplicity itself to physically jump across the two meter wide hole. He traded his fusion gun for his power sword as he landed, and charged the three troopers turning toward him, all armed with rifles.

One and two, one and two, through and through, his power blade went snicker-snack. Effortless cutting through the foes, he hit the geth in the back.

His allies held the geth in place with suppressive fire, and his sword scythed through his opponents, but there were more on the landing above, on the second floor. He dashed around the silo, before nodding to the human. "Better?"

Her glare was cut off as Tali asked a question. "Why are you carrying a geth head?"

He flung the head around the corner instead of answering, the improvised projectile clanging off one of the geth chassi, fouling its aim. He then stepped to the side so Liara could put a singularity in the ramp leading down. The geth immediately realized this was an extremely bad thing, the juggernaut and destroyer trying to charge through it, while the sniper and two rocket troopers desperately sought cover.

Then Joannis hit it with a warp, setting off another large biotic explosion. The detonation badly damaged the ramp, but it stayed attached, but Arlas could hear the metal stressing under the sudden pressure. He turned and glared at the human. "You just lost the right to complain about my weapon choices. Ever. I am not setting off artillery explosions."

She glared back, but both of them stopped as the metal flooring they were standing on screamed in protest, and the entire grating on the side of the room with the ramp suddenly dropped about five centimeters, before screeching to a halt. Arlas gave the human another glare, before pointing to the top. "May I _suggest_ you check the upstairs, ma'am? Make sure the rocket troopers didn't survive?"

She simply nodded, recognizing that it was a good suggestion, even if the tone had suggested it was anything but. Arlas walked around to the backside of the silo, where Tali was working on several fuel lines. Liara was standing nearby, keeping an eye out for any geth. Arlas nodded to Liara in approval, before turning to Tali. "How long?"

Tali grumbled. "Question of my life. If the question is, when will this power plant be fully online, two weeks, earliest. This is pseudo-plasma damage, all major fuel lines are fused."

"That is too long."

"Which is why I am redirecting two of the waste removal lines to act as fuel feeds. … You are in my light, Arlas."

Arlas smirked. "Of course, builder. As you were."

He glanced at Liara, who was watching the byplay with amusement, and chose his words with care. "You injured, Dusk?"

She took a deep breath, before nodding. "No, but that doesn't matter. I need to know. I need to."

The eldar simply stared at her for a moment, before slowly nodding. "Fair enough. Keep Gemling safe."

Liara smiled as Tali muttered something unpleasant in quarian at Arlas, but kept working for a few more minutes. Arlas suddenly looked up as the silo started humming, and Tali sighed. "Power restored. We can…"

"PRIME!"

Joannis' warning came just before the grating that made up the floor shook, and then screamed in protest as several connections snapped and dropped another few centimeters. Arlas drew his fusion gun again, putting the sword away, and stepped around the corner, to find the huge prime advancing from the door, apparently having jumped down from the upper level. He tried to get his fusion gun up, but the geth fired first, just before he did. The massive shotgun hit his stomach, blasting him backwards a pair of steps and knocking him onto his back, but he didn't feel the pain of being torn open, so his armor must have turned the blow aside.

Arlas heard metal screaming in protest as his fusion gun's blast landed, and then suddenly the floor fell out from under him with a deafening crack. He forced himself past his pain, it was fleeting and didn't indicate real damage, and twisted . Tali and Liara were within reach. He twisted some more to grab them both, having lost his grip on the fusion gun at some point, before mentally grabbing Kap'Eiyl. *( _ **REALLY**_ _need your help here!_ )*

Kap'Eiyl snarled something inelegant in his head, but took control of the mental impulses to control the jets, and then dumped all power to the jets. Arlas nearly screamed as he took all of Tali and Liara's momentum into his arms as the jets fired, feeling like he was about to have his arms ripped from their sockets. But Kap'Eiyl managed to slow them enough that Liara could focus a lift on herself, and then they landed. He dropped the girls onto the ground, and then slammed into the wal before the jets stopped providing power, before collapsing. He groaned, before weakly pushing himself upright.

"Arlas, Liara, Tali, report. Any of you alive?"

"Liara here, Tali and I are uninjured. Arlas managed to catch us."

* _No, I did. Your welcome, you ungrateful…_ *

*( _Enough Kap'eiyl. They think you are still in the Wraithguard. And without telling them about the spirit stones, they will continue to think that._ )*

The spirit snorted in disgust, but Arlas turned his attention to the conversation. "Arlas here, still breathing. Need a minute."

Joannis' next question was laced with static, but understandable. "Injuries?"

Liara replied first. "Bruising for Tali and myself."

"Strained my arms, significant impact to shoulder, shotgun blast to the gut but armor caught it. Other than that, mobile. No way back up from here, meet you in the server room if possible."

He paused, before looking around. "Where is my fusion gun?"

The eldar didn't spot his fusion gun, and forced himself to his feet. He looked up, setting his helmet to search for wraithbone, and groaned before reactivating his communicator. "Joannis, Arlas. Can you biotically pull my fusion gun off the wall? It is up where the floor was."

After a moment of receiving only static, he frowned. "Joannis? Do you hear me?"

He glanced to the side, and saw Tali tapping at her omnitool. "Tali?"

She looked up and shook her head. "Something is jamming communications. Something in her area."

Arlas nodded, before turning to Liara. "Can you biotically pull my fusion gun down?"

It took a moment to get Liara to see it, and another few minutes for her to get it loose, but eventually it slipped off the dent it had lodge in, and fell into his arms. He froze at a semi-familiar keening noise, before slowly raising his head to stare at the only door out of the current level of the silo room. Tali and Liara both turned, Liara speaking first. "What was that, the wind?"

"I have no idea, but I know that wasn't machinery."

Arlas, however, sighed in vexation. "Joannis, do you hear me?"

When she didn't reply, he cursed in eldar, before leveling his fusion gun. "New orders, kill everything between here and the rally point."

Both women turned to him, Tali's voice suddenly sounding flat. "You know that noise."

He nodded at her statement. "Shoot first, keep one eye above you, and set your weapons to incendiary rounds. Liara, you will be in middle, Tali, you have to take point. I will take rearguard, and we need to move quickly, before they bring their numbers to bear."

"So what was that noise?"

He paused, before looking both women right in the eye, though the helmet reduced the effect he was trying to have.. "A… minor bug problem."

 _A/N - Easier to write than the last chapter, but the divergences are starting to pile up. Hopefully this one was more enjoyable, because Arlas is really getting annoyed at getting hurt again. Usual author requests go here, fav, follow, review, and don't forget to vote on my profile poll on the new poll. But most importantly, enjoy._

 _May 12, 2018 - And seriously, I misspelt ork ONCE, get over it people! Half the reviews caught that, and all of them were loud and vocal about it._


	27. Bug Problems on Noveria

**Chapter 26 - Bug Problems on Noveria**

' _He is pulling out Tyranids! Quick, bring me my Basilisks, and the twelve foot long battle board.' - Imperial Guard player response to discovering he is fighting Tyranids._

Joannis stepped into the main server room, and nodded to Ashley. The marine nodded back, before pausing as the door closed behind her commander. "Others still working to repair the main power plant?"

Joannis shook her head. "Floor fell out. They dropped to the bottom, and something started jamming comms after they all reported in."

Ashley winced. "Well, that explains why no one has responded to comms in the last few minutes."

Ashley glanced back at the two extras, before turning back. "Any idea if they made it?"

Joannis shrugged. "Couldn't tell. Bad angle, poor lighting, and lots of crap in the way. Worst to worst, we deal with Saren's people, then go looking for them. No one gets left behind. No one."

Before they could continue the conversation, the door behind the server to the roof opened, allowing the return of the team that had gone to reconnect the landlines. Icivia in first, followed quickly by her twin, and Joannis immediately realized something was wrong. Wrex stomped in before she could ask, dragging something behind him. "We have a problem."

He threw the carcass he was pulling into the middle of the room. She looked at the vaguely insectoid corpse, noting that it looked like someone had spliced a cockroach and some other insect or insects together, and then slapped two tentacles onto the body for good measure. The whole thing probably massed more than any two individuals in the squad not counting Wrex. Wrex's tone was down right murderous, but she could see a very pleased glint in his eye. "We have a rachni problem."

* * *

Arlas glanced behind the group again, and spotted something scuttling out of sight. "Move faster. Whatever is following us is getting closer."

The had been in the under tunnels of the facility for less than five minutes, and already Arlas knew they were in a bad place; it had the feel of trying to clear tyranids out of their own tunnels. The facility's tunnels twisted and stopped unexpectedly, and all of the corners were blind. He had to hope that Tali was combat aware enough to check corners before stepping out, even with his desire to move faster. All he had seen were some low, scuttling things that screeched before scurrying back between pipes and shadows, and while he could mentally feel them, listening to their psyker emanations made him nauseous in a way even Chaos and Tyranids hadn't.

But what was most concerning was the fact he didn't recognize the glimpses he had managed. He had a fairly good idea what an entire bioform would look like for both types, but it was nothing like what he had seen before, and he had seen quite a large number of different Tyranids. The closest thing to what he was seeing now were Tyrant Guards, but the guards lacked the extra tentacles, weren't nearly as small or unarmored, and the guards' claws were much larger.

Tali finally replied. "Would you rather I walk into a group of whatever, or should I keep checking corners first?"

Arlas raised his death spinner, and fired twice, and watched the creature dodge the monofilament nets with terrifying swiftness. "Whichever means we don't get swarmed under."

A shotgun blast from ahead indicated that she had found something, but she didn't call out. Their long ranged communications were still being jammed, but the short range still worked. So both of the women heard him curse very loudly but briefly. "Swarm coming up the back!"

Nearly a dozen large creatures had suddenly boiled out from between the grates and piping on the walls and floor, and a tide of smaller bioforms rushed past those. Arlas fired his death spinner, trying to stem the tide, but even as the netting cut the leading edge of the swarm apart, the smaller forms burst, spraying acid everywhere and dissolving the monofilament net. He swore viciously in eldar before snapping an order. "Liara, singularity, rear, now!"

Even as he called for assistance, he primed and threw a plasma grenade. The explosion and singularity didn't even cause the swarm to pause, reminding him of Tyranid swarms whipped to a frenzy. The bioforms dove into the passage filling singularity, the smaller ones popping almost immediately, and Arlas could hear the acid landing on the metal grating and hissing. He turned and sprinted to the front of the small group, joining Tali at corner and firing his death spinner around the corner as fast as it could spin up a new monofilament net. "Next grenade explosion, we charge."

Tali and Liara stared at the eldar like he was insane. "There are dozens of ahead of us."

He primed and tossed grenade before replying. "And there are hundreds behind. PUSH."

Arlas didn't wait any longer, the grenade detonated amidst screeches of rage and pain, and he charged around the corner. A spike of some kind, leaking acid, slammed into the wall beside him, his reflexes saving him from getting sprayed. His net wrapped around one of the larger forms, its natural carapace deflecting the thrashing monofilament, until the net wrapped around its head, severing its antenna and slicing its eyes. That bioform screeched like the damned of the Immaterium, thrashing its tendrils about and gouging another form, which turned on it. Arlas ignored the infighting, and focused on the next creature. The singularity wasn't going to last forever, even though Liara had shown surprising competency with the skill.

A shotgun blast sent one of the larger forms tumbling backwards, missing most of its head, and then a warp hit another. He eviscerated a third, leaving only three more moving toward the small group, not counting the blind form and the one ripping it to pieces. He transferred his death spinner to his off hand, and drew his power sword, ignoring the smaller bioforms that were starting to rush toward him, having been driven back by the heat and sound of the plasma grenade.

He heard Tali cursing under her breath, before a sudden orange globe shot past his shoulder, arcing over and around one of the larger bioforms to slam into a smaller one right behind it. It exploded, splashing flames in a wide radius, covering the back of the larger bioform as it spat another acid spike, the smaller ones exploding in impotent acidic fury as the flames consumed them. Another bioform spat its acid laced spike, scoring another glancing hit on Arlas, but he managed to twist enough the spike deflected rather than shattered. Another spike slammed against Liara's barrier, splashing acid through her shield, making her scream in shocked pain as the acid began eating through the thin armor.

Arlas warp jumped behind the remaining two bioforms, stabbing the flaming one in the back and ripping the blade up to cut its head in half. Tali fired her shotgun at the two fighting bioforms, choosing the closest two targets instead of the still hostile distance one, while Liara stopped panicking to throw another warp in retaliation. He looked around, and failed to see any standing bioforms. "Move, now! That singularity can't last much longer."

He could hear screams of rage from around the corner, but didn't wait before following his own advice. He returned the power sword to its sheath, and leveled the death spinner at the corridor ahead. He jumped to one side as his danger sense tingled, firing the death spinner as he dodged, and sliced a smaller bioform into pieces before it burst, sizzling softly as it tried to eat through his wraithbone armor. A quick twist of thought, and he psychically brushed the acid off. Tali suddenly yelled. "There should be an elevator ahead of us."

Liara quickly announced a more pressing matter. "Singularity down. Thirty seconds until replace."

Arlas turned and fired a couple nets, hoping to stall the inevitable rush of bioforms, but apparently they were in a frenzy. They didn't even hesitate to rush the corner, the monofilament nets cutting the first two larger ones to shreds, but the rest just kept coming, a wave of chitin and claws. Arlas, who had seen what was about to happen more times than he cared to think about, turned and ran.

Tali got to the end of the passage, and activated the lift, before turning and drawing her pistol. Arlas wisely stepped to the side of the passage as Liara turned, both women firing past him at the horde, trying to slow it down. He managed to roll his eyes as he sidestepped an acid spike, keeping his thoughts on the amateurs to himself, even as he corrected their actions. "Explosives."

Tali immediately launched another of those incendiary balls, arcing it up and away from him so it wouldn't hit him. Liara however fumbled the grenade out of her pouch, took a second to figure out how to remove the detonator from the explosive, and then threw the grenade into a wall, causing it to bounce and fly at him. Arlas warp jumped to avoid having a grenade hit him, landing behind the women, quickly turning and firing into the horde. "Liara, learn to throw."

The lift dinged before she could retort, and both women got in, Arlas taking the time to throw another plasma grenade. Tali pushed the only button on the lift as he got in, and the elevator began its slow climb. Arlas glanced at Liara. "Lessons on explosives when we return."

Arlas looked up as the lift dinged, and as the doors began to slowly grind open, he leveled the death spinner. When nothing immediately came into view, he slowly stepped out of the lift, sweeping the ceiling and corridor, before slowly advancing, idly wondering how the others were doing.

* * *

Joannis looked up from the full facility map Dilteer had found, and rubbed her neck. "Alright, new plan. Ashley, Icivia and Dilteer will stay here. Everyone else will be pushing to the tram line. Once there, I want Jaclyn and Vasir to hold the tram room, while Wrex and I try to push to the bottom level of the silo. We haven't seen many rachni, so three options are possible. There aren't too many Rachni, the Rachni are holed up wherever they were being made and wherever we haven't been yet, or the security team did a hell of a number on the Rachni before getting killed. Personally, I am thinking it is the second, but I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Assignments might change, depending on what we find when we get to the tram. Long ranged comms are still spotty, though, so if any team has no new orders in six hours, the mako is the rally point."

* * *

Arlas ducked as an acid spike nearly took his head off, and fired his death spinner back with equal success. He stepped back into cover, and watched as the rachni began to actually fight, rather than just mindlessly rush. They had encountered a dozen large biofroms halfway down the vaulted tunnel from the lift, and numerous small ones, but the piping jutting from the walls provided enough cover that Arlas wasn't concerned yet. They had killed off the smaller bioforms with a plasma grenade and incendiary charge, as well as the two larger ones that had tried to charge with them. The deaths of those two had caused another six to charge, while the other four had stayed back.

Tali put down the last of the second group of larger forms with a single shotgun blast, and the last four started their charge as the others died. Arlas frowned, wondering why they waited that long, and why his danger sense was slowly becoming more agitated. He did a quick glance behind them, but didn't see anything hostile. A glance to his side revealed only thick piping, with only a few clear areas but he could clearly see the wall on the other side of the piping, so there was no room for anything to lurk on the other side. And a glance up showed heavy grating, nearly five centimeters thick, with enough spacing in the grating to show if something was lurking in the upper area.

Shaking off the feeling, wondering if it was something more ethereal than a direct attack, he focused on the advancing enemies. Tali put one down, Liara warped another, and together the three of them put down the last two. As the last one collapsed, Arlas felt his danger sense suddenly spike, and reflexively dove toward the other side of the passage.

He barely avoid a spray of projectiles slamming into the piping he had been using for cover, coming from above and behind him. He had no idea how one of those creatures had managed to get there without alerting them all, but clearly the proper response was to use excessive force to discourage similar tactics later. He rolled to his feet, his off hand drawing and leveling the flamer pistol, his main hand holding the death spinner.

His opponent, however, had other ideas, and the grating it had been standing on suddenly fell out of the ceiling, the creature right behind it. Arlas reflexively triggered the flamer as he scrambled backwards, only to jerk his hand back and out of the way as the creature lashed out with one arm, the dim lighting reflecting off a blade of bone, wreathed in pale green-whitish energies, seemingly growing out of the creature's limb. He cursed, dropping the death spinner to grab his power sword. "Hostile rear!"

He winced as the death spinner hit the ground, but was quickly caught up trying to keep his opponent from using its two natural swords to remove his head. He frantically jumped to one side to avoid an organic blade, and parried the other, before having to warp jump to the other side of the creature as it leveled its large, conical ranged weapon at him. The warp jump was nearly instantaneous, but the creature had already started turning, one of its swords slicing to intercept his own attack. A screech from in front indicated that more of the scuttling horrors had joined the fight.

He heard Tali firing her shotgun and screaming, but the creature didn't react as it fired its ranged weapon at the two women. He couldn't spare any attention to figure out what happened to Liara. He gave ground, drawing the creature further from the exit and his allies. The creature followed him, and as it stalked him, he realized why he was so unnerved by the creature. Two legs, four 'arms,' and a large, wedge shaped head, taller than him, the darkness made it difficult to confirm what he was fighting, but he had seen too many similar silhouettes before to not recognize his opponent.

A Tyranid Warrior.

He was dueling a tyranid warrior bioform. And worse, it was playing with him. It had the upper hand, and knew it.

Or so he thought, before he did a basic feint at its head, and then cut off the end of its ranged weapon, disabling the weapon and making the warrior scream in rage. It lunged forward, launching a blindingly fast flurry of blows with its bone swords, and gamely followed the pathfinder as he gave ground in front of its superior strength and speed. He frowned as he dodged two blows with one move, and deflected a third strike; it was strange, the creature should have gutted him and moved on by now, but it seemed to be struggling, like it had no experiences to draw on. Which was impossible, as that would require breaking its link with the Hive Queen, or the Hive Queen being so young as to not have any experiences for it to use.

His musings were interrupted as the creature suddenly turned its head, a loud warcry echoing through the tunnel. He stabbed at one of the bone swords, trying to destroy the weapon, but the creature suddenly staggered and began floating, shrieking and flailing in rage, making the eldar miss. Arlas stared at the bioform in confusion, before spotting Liara standing with one hand on her hip, clearly pleased with herself. He quickly realized that she had hit it with a lift, as the creature thrashed and floated upwards.

He gave the asari an only slightly mocking salute with the blade, before putting up the flamer pistol and sword, and pulling out the fusion gun. Only to dive under the flailing warrior as a second one suddenly leapt down, claws reaching to remove the eldar's head. He rolled to his feet on the other side of the floating warrior, and then leapt backwards as the second warrior, moving with more purpose and assurity than the first one had, pointed its ranged weapon at the wall near him and fired.

Arlas swore as he watched the fist sized projectile hit the pipe, and penetrate it, immediately recognizing the weapon as a barbed strangler. He turned and sprinted down the tunnel as he heard metal straining, shearing, and shattering. He slowed only briefly, grabbing the confused Liara, and bodily carrying her another ten meters before slowing to a stop and setting her down. Behind him, a mess of thorns had grown to completely fill the passage, blocking the passage to the two warriors. He knew through previous experience that the thorns were as hard as metal, and only his fusion gun could burn through them before they dissolved away in a couple minutes.

Arlas did a quick check to make sure he didn't have some Tyranid bio-ammo sticking to him, before turning to the others. "Anyone injured?"

Tali shook her head. "No, but what was that thing you were fighting?"

Arlas glanced back at the tangled tendrils, before walking away from it. "A commander bioform of the Great Devourer. We should keep moving. Also, who..."

His question was answered before he could ask it, as a shotgun blast echoed down the corridor, followed by raucous laughter. A minute later, a familiar being stepped around the corner, making the two women sigh in relief, and then completely relax when a second followed. Tali waved, jogging forward, as Arlas rolled his eyes and turned around, still doing his job of rear guard, as Tali greeting their reinforcements. "Shepard, Wrex. I have never been more glad to see you two."

Arlas interrupted, annoyed that the mon-keigh were bonding instead of focusing on the possibility of ambush. "Can we get back to the upper levels before you all start congratulation each other on surviving? We are still in danger of being ambushed."

That got the two he had been with moving again, though Joannis paused long enough to do a double take at the passage the three of them had been proceeding down. "Are those… vines?"

He glanced back, and watched the vines begin sagging and then dissolving, and bent to grab his discarded death spinner. A quick check showed the weapon undamaged, and then he answered her as the vines finished falling apart. "Were."

A quick glance showed two destroyed sections of ceiling and one of the flooring. He glanced at the grating on the ground then at the ceiling, before turning back to Joannis. "We should be leaving, now."

"We know about the Rachni."

"Rachni? No, however bad those Rachni were, this is something far worse. Tyranids."

* * *

Joannis turned to Arlas as they came out of the elevator leading to the tramway. "Alright, we are out of the area where you were attacked. Now explain. I thought you said Tyranids were a threat from your home, and not here."

The tall alien simply held out its arm, and activated its omnitool, giving her a still image of a creature that looked nothing like the rachni, other in the most general of senses. "That is what I fought, and it appeared to be leading the things you called rachni."

Liara spoke. "Wait, it attacked you from behind and above while the rachni charged from in front. Why do you think they were leading?"

"Because the group that attacked used strategy. Very good for getting someone's attention, so another unit could get around behind the opposition and start butchering them. That last group would have gotten through if you two had turned to help me or if the warrior had killed me, and then we would have been surrounded and quickly slaughtered. If it WAS simply using them instead of leading, then it was in the exact place at the perfect time to do so. And I consider that happening by circumstance to being less likely."

The logic got a nod from the asari, before turning back to Joannis and Wrex, who were examining the image with a sort of fascinated, morbid curiosity, as well as the two new party members. He still didn't know why they were here, and frankly didn't care. Wrex spoke first. "Doesn't look that tough."

Arlas sighed before glaring. "That chitin is harder than my armor, its armed with two blades that act the same as my power sword, and its ranged weapon is armed with ammo that will eat its way to your nervous system, then up to your brain in seconds. It was also as fast as me, if not even faster. The second one had the ranged weapon that made the wall of vines, which were as hard as metal, and grew that big in less than half a second after being exposed to a heat source, in this case steam, though usually they aim for organics. I didn't see what it had for melee weapons other than claws, but either way, I would not willingly fight them in melee again."

Joannis raised an eyebrow behind her visor, surprised by his admission of weakness. Then again, he had always been fairly honest about his strengths. "Do those weapons have names? And did anyone else get a recording of the fight? Oh, and am I allowed to send these to command?"

She grinned as the eldar's helmet turned to focus fully on her, no doubt intuiting expression had been schooled to one of distaste. "The melee weapons were boneswords, the one that shot burrowing parasites is called a Devourer, and the one that made the obstruction is called a Barbed Strangler. All are designed to kill the targets in as horrific and disturbing a way possible. There is a reason why, after nearly nine thousands years of focusing on excelling at killing Orks, my craftworld turned to excelling at killing Tyranids in less than a century. That such a change didn't overly hamper our ability to butcher orks is simply a happy coincidence. And yes, these you can send back. They tend to just messily kill observers, instead of doing much worse.

Now, I believe we have someone to apprehend. We can discuss everything at the debrief. Assuming we get there before everyone expires from old age."

Wrex laughed. "Ha! Jokes on you, krogan don't die from age."

Arlas dismissed his omnitool, and turned to the krogan. "Truly? Then my people might have more uses for your kind yet."

Joannis watched with bemusement as the eldar and krogan walked to the tram, discussing the various merits of single and two handed blades, probably so Arlas could finish the weapon he had promised Wrex. After a moment, she shook her head. "I am not sure if that is the most natural or unnatural friendships I have ever seen. Definitely one of the more destructive though."

The human spectre glanced to one side as Tali spoke. "I thought Spectre Dilteer and I would be staying back to get through their security."

The volus spoke up. "Already finished. *wheeze* Security was *gasp* not as robust *gasp* as I anticipated."

Ashley decided to speak up. "Should we call Garrus and Kaidan from the mako then? Have the whole group to deal with Benezia and her associates?"

Joannis gestured to the tram, even as she walked toward it, getting everyone moving. "We don't know that she is here. All we know is that a group claiming to be Saren's associates arrived to deal with the Omega protocol situation. Six turians, krogans, and eight asari along with one individual in a full body cloak, and a dozen shipping containers. Listed as containing combat mechs, these were where the geth likely came from. Going by the amount Tali thinks can be stuffed inside, and adjusting for the larger chassi we have already destroyed, that makes it likely we have encountered all or almost all of the geth."

She was the last onto the tram, after the asari spectre Vasir. She raised her voice. "All in, let's go find this executor of Saren's."

* * *

Arlas looked up in relief as the tram finally began slowing to a stop. For two hours he had been ignoring the asari and volus newcomers. Both waiting for the engineers to fix the tram and riding on it. Both had tried to 'interact' with him, the former to try and liberate some of his equipment, the latter trying to scan it. They had been equally successful, though the volus was the winner due to taking his loss with more grace. The asari had finally muttered some interesting curses at him before storming off, and began talking to Icivia about him. Judging from the look on the turian, she was amused that someone else was having the same problems as she was.

Arlas didn't wait for the tram to dock, instead warp jumping to the landing to start looking around. By the time the tram had stopped and everyone was starting to get off, he could report. "One elevator active, another locked. Also a door, but it is sealed as well. Want me to open it?"

He hefted the fusion gun meaningfully, not truly serious in his suggestion. He was simply trying to get a rise out of the mon-keigh. Everyone responded at the same time. " _ **NO!**_ "

Wrex was the only counterpoint. "YES!"

Arlas smirked under his helmet, before relaxing, waiting for orders. He let the glares slide off him, and simply stared back at the twins. After a moment, they sighed together as only those who completely knew each other could. "Arlas, Vasir, and Wrex, with Jaclyn and me. Everyone else, you are second wave. Arlas, big rifle, everyone else, focus on a barrier. Jaclyn and I will focus on a second layer to protect from the acid."

The group piled in, and Wrex and Vasir began putting up a barrier, while Jaclyn and Joannis got the second layer working. Arlas simply switched out for his geth long rifle, and gently rubbed the scope, cleaning a bit of ichor off it. His dangersense wasn't tingling, so he wasn't concerned about what they would find at the top, though he did make a show of expanding the massive rifle, and then using Wrex's shoulder as a brace. The krogan was quick to knock the rifle barrel off his shoulder, and into Vasir, who glared and knocked it toward the ground. Always amusing, watching the mon-keigh perform their little dominance rituals.

Then the elevator opened, and Vasir uttered a startled oath, right before the other four dropped the barrier. Arlas couldn't see enough to understand why everyone was grabbing their weapons, being at the back of the group and only able to see a door on the other wall. Then Wrex and Vasir stepped through and spread out, and he spotted the remains.

They weren't bodies, as that would imply they were intact enough to identify what they were. These were just globs of bloody meat, strewn throughout the room and destroyed equipment. Arlas sheathed the geth long rifle, and grabbed his sword before moving to the nearest largest piece of meat to do a cursory examination. Sadly, the remains were too damaged to show anything, before his examination was interrupted by Joannis' voice, slightly watery, but her tone was firm despite the sight. "Second team, get down here now. And hold onto your lunches, it's… grisly."

Arlas glanced at Jaclyn, and tapped his hand against his thigh loud enough to make a sound. No one heard it. Once again reminded of the fact that mon-keigh lacked senses, he coughed loudly. No one jumped, but all four heads snapped around to glare at him. He ignored their ire with professional ease. "Permission to scout ahead."

Joannis didn't even hesitate. "Granted, try to not melt any holes through the wall."

He gave her a jaunty wave, before flipping his hood up and pushing psyker energy into the cloak, fading from view. A few quick movements took him to the door and it swished open at his touch, revealing it connected to a hallway. Blood on the walls here, but no bodies or remains. The door at the end of that connected to a security room, with two doors. Two control consoles sat on one side, and the door on the opposite of consoles led to what looked like an empty barracks. The door opposite the one he entered, however, was what he was looking for.

The interior resembled some of the worst Chaos infested charnel houses he had ever encountered, though it lacked the sheer volume those places had. It also had several identifiable pieces of beings, Most noticeably an elcor, though only through the sheer size of the pile. Now that he had more to examine, it almost looked like someone had hit the bodies with warp again and again, even after the target had died.

A quick look around revealed two more doors of interest, one of which was locked. He glanced at the open door, before pulling out his sword, and activating the power field, and then cutting open the sealed door. As he finished cutting, the door to the security room hissed open, and Jaclyn spotted him. "Arlas, what the fuck did my twin say?"

"To not melt any holes through the wall. I did not. I cut a hole in a door."

The look on the human's face under her visor was delicious, realizing that he fully intended to carry through with his threat to do **exactly** what they ordered. Joannis just sighed. "What about the open door?"

"No idea, just finished opening it."

"I meant the unlocked one."

"You didn't say that."

"...What about the unlocked door?"

"No idea, just finished opening this one."

He glanced inside the door he had cut open so as not to watch Jaclyn trying to control her temper, seeing only a short staircase down to another locked door, before turning to head to the unlocked door. Joannis spoke up before he had gotten three steps. "Arlas, you guard that door. Do not do anything to the next door. In fact, just stand there. If you are attacked, you may move and defend yourself."

The eldar stared at the human for a moment, before deliberating taking one step to the side, and leaning against the wall. As the Twins turned to talk to the group, he stepped to the other side of the door, before resuming the same position and pulling out his flamer pistol. Sadly, the group left before anyone noticed, so Arlas quietly stalked to the other side of the door, and leaned against it. Less than a minute later, his omnitool crackled to life. "Arlas, Joannis, got survivors. Saren's executors showed up, and the leader was a being in a full form concealing cloak. It was definitely NOT Benezia though. Will contact you when we get finished talking to the survivors."

She closed the communication channel before he could reply, making him smirk in pleased amusement. His malicious compliance was already working. It would make getting the information about what happened with the daemon report that much faster. He paused, hearing the door to the security room opening, and activated his cloak, fading from view. A couple seconds later three geth infantry and two hoppers breached the room. The two hoppers were fairly normal looking, having seen them first on Therum, and two of the infantry were normal troopers.

The last infantry was different though, and he could tell it was going to be a problem. A quick check of his communicator in his ear showed that comms were down again, and he swore before slowly changing his flamer and sword out for his long rifle. The one in charge was slightly taller than the other two infantry, and had significantly more armor, as thick as the armor on that mercenary group he had seen on Feros. It carried a shotgun in its hands, and had a second weapon on its back, though in its collapsed form he couldn't tell what kind of weapon it was. The real problem was the hilt sticking from its back, and what looked like some kind of integrated weapon on its left forearm.

As he observed them entering, he felt Yol'Pvera reaching out to him, her thoughts revealing the message she was trying to give him. He reached back, mentally showing the geth, and added that he would contact her after the mission, if it could wait. His pilot sent back agreement and amusement, before dropping the link.

Arlas watched the geth move through the room, pausing as they spotted the destroyed door, but after a second they started toward the door the rest of the team had gone through. Now Arlas had a problem: he wanted to continue the malicious compliance he had started, but letting something ambush the others was not a good way to continue to be trusted. But with the comms jammed, he couldn't warn them.

Then he realized that the leader of this group had stopped and was looking straight at him. A couple seconds later, all five of the geth were staring at him, and he cursed in his head, wondering how they had spotted him. After a minute, the leader turned away, but as Arlas raised his rifle, the leader turned back, this time aiming its shotgun at him. He wasn't particularly concerned about the shotgun, as it was nearly twenty meters between the two of them and for some reason shotguns here were useless past ten meters, but the other four would be a bigger problem.

He waited a moment as the other geth turned toward him, then back to the leader, and just as they started to resume moving forward, he shifted the rifle and fired. The shot hit the geth hopper closest to cover dead center, blowing open its chest and obliterating its processing centers before it could even warble.

Then everything started happening very quickly.

Arlas instinctively shifted to the side and fired again as the geth leader unit fired its shotgun. His shot hit the second hopper in the upper chest, killing it and severing the head, while the shotgun blast just missed his chest and stomach, the three bright blasts actually partially melting the wall. The other two infantry began turning and leveling their assault rifles, and Arlas heard his geth long rifle beeping its overheat warning. He warp jumped to cover on the other side of the geth, only to find the geth leader unit already turning and firing at and missing him. Apparently that unit had something that could see through his cloak.

He dropped the overheated long rifle, ripped the fusion gun off his back, and started to level it at the geth leader. The geth responded by pointing at him with its left arm, and something flew out of the small opening on its forearm. It looked like a small, harmless disk, and his dangersense didn't react to it, so he ignored it. He finished leveling the fusion gun, just as the disk hit him. He didn't have time to pull the trigger before suddenly he was on his back, his entire body aching and his chest warm, indicating he had taken the shotgun blast to the chest.

Arlas' quick glance around didn't reveal his fusion gun, but did show that he had managed to at least pull the trigger. Sadly he had missed the leader unit. Figuring that this was something the geth had come up with specifically to kill him, he rolled to the side, into cover, as a shotgun blast hit the floor where he had been lying. As he bumped the metal table, he heard a discharge of electricity, and realized the damned geth had hit him with an overload charge.

The sound of a weapon discharging and punching through the thin table near his head reminded him that he was still in combat. Then two assault rifles started firing, reminding him that he did, in fact, have other things to worry about then just a single cheating machine that could see him. He grabbed his sword and double pistol, before warp jumping behind the two troopers. Two quick slashes took out the troopers before they could react to him, but the leader fired again, hitting one of the destroyed geth as Arlas dodged. Arlas warp jumped again, landing behind another table, only to curse as a shotgun blast a half second later punched a hole through it, again just missing him.

They had some way of tracking his warp jumps, or the machines were just that good at noticing where he was ending up. He considered what do as he shifted slightly, only to pause at the clattering of metal on metal, and looked up as it happened again. He looked over the table, to see the unit drawing its blade and leveling the sword at him. He stared for a moment, before shrugging and leaping over the table. The geth was clearly plotting something, but if it wanted to commit suicide by eldar, he would be happy to assist.

* * *

 _Consensus Upgrade Report: unit, weapons_

 _Analysis of upgraded sensors_ _: Not effective against new species cloak, significant upgrade against jamming and spotting concealed units (see attached video), noticeable decrease in power draw, allowing more power to increase unit reaction times._

 _Analysis of upgraded sensors with enhanced power_ _: Able to identify cloaked units. New species shows up as unusual static (see attached video)._

 _Analysis of new weapon system, ammo_ _: Significant increase to weapon power, can use internal coolant to supplement lithium clip system._

 _Analysis of new weapon system, shotgun_ _: Highly accurate, able to perform to all specifications._

 _Analysis of new weapon system, assault rifle_ _: Significant accuracy drop over previous system, cooling system inefficient. Weapon requires significant improvement._

 _Analysis of new weapon system, physical melee weapon_ _: New species melee weapon sheared through on first strike (see attached video); unusual enemy weapon effect observed (see attached image) and result (see attached image); recommend check of similar weapon in storage to see if same effect occurs._

 _Analysis of new transmitter and secondary transmitter_ _: Modest excess power draw, 97.8% of total programs successfully recovered after calculating total destruction of platform._

* * *

Arlas looked down at the destroyed geth unit, cut in half from shoulder to hip through its weapon as it had tried to block, and sheathed his power blade, before collecting his fusion gun and long rifle and returning to his position by the wall. He had no idea what the geth was trying to by willingly discarding its ranged weapons, but wasn't concerned. It was a machine, programmed by machines. Only a machine could guess what it had been attempting to do.

His musings were interrupted by his omnitool pinging. "Arlas, this is Joannis. Found a back way into the Secure Labs, and learned that the Hot Labs is where they were growing the creatures. They are Rachni, and the two you encountered are how they got out. Those things came from eggs the Queen laid, so they are Rachni too. The Queen is in the Secure lab, so we are going to enter the back way. What we need is you to make a lot of noise about coming in from the tram station. When we hear the fighting, we will come through the back, catch them in a vice."

Arlas waited for a moment. "And when would that happen?"

"Give us five minutes to get into position. After we deal with the Queen, we will deal with the hot labs."

He nodded to himself as the channel closed, before leaning back against the wall. At the five minute mark, he began banging his fist against the wall, before firing his pistol into the wall. After a minute, he got bored, and moved into Eldar songs, most frequently heard about the craftworld, until Kap'Eiyl politely asked him to stop mangling the traditional songs with his inability to carry a tune in a bucket, so he just waited against the wall.

About five minutes after he started, his omnitool pinged again. "Arlas, Jaclyn, its been ten minutes, why haven't you started?"

"I did, first banging on the wall and firing my pistol, then singing, and then dancing."

There was a pregnant pause on the other side as he heard someone laughing, before Jaclyn spoke again, her voice very controlled. "And that didn't get through the door, did it?"

"Wouldn't know, still standing where you told me to."

This pause was longer, and Joannis joined the conversation before Jaclyn quit. "Alright Arlas, you made your point. Can you please stop before we have to throw you off the ship?"

"I will stop when I get that list. But I think I have made my point clear enough for this mission. Opening the door in a minute, get ready to push two minutes after that."

He waited a second, before closing that channel and sending Jaclyn a simple text. ' _Suggest not coming in. PLEASE._ '

Done with the message, he walked up to the door, and slammed a melta to it. He wanted to make a point, and kill everything inside before the others got in, so he primed a second melta, ready to try throwing it. The melta bomb would take out a good sized chunk of the floor, but he really wanted to drive his point home to the mon-keigh. Maybe if he made the point thoroughly enough, they would start listening again.

He took a deep breath, before mentally activating the placed explosive, blasting open a three meter wide hole in the wall, and then throwing the one in his hand, putting a one and a half second timer on it. He pulled out the fusion gun, and activated the warp generator, jumping as he heard the second melta bounce and then detonate.

Arlas landed in of a large room, surprised at the large size of it. The map he had seen showed it to be about fifteen meters by thirty meters, but the one he had landed in was close to twice that on both sides. As everything was turning to the holes he had blasted, he took a second to note everything he could.

Metal walkways crisscrossed everywhere, three levels of them surrounding a large enclosure in the center, nearly ten meters tall, wide, and long, though it was encased in metal shutters, making viewing whatever was inside impossible. From his location, he could see more than two dozen geth, mostly the larger destroyers and juggernauts, though two primes each led a dozen geth near each door leading into the room, but there were two smaller geth carrying tanks on their backs near the door the others were planning to use. He could see five turians through out the room, armed with assault and long rifles, and there were six krogran. A dozen asari finished the enemy numbers, and the leader was obvious, standing on a raised platform that rested against the center enclosure.

It took only a handful of seconds to note the enemy positions, strengths, and the room's layout, and another to decide how to fight. He took a deep breath, reaching deep into his memories, allowing himself to smile as the geth and krogan finished turning toward the door and firing through the hole he had made.

 _Thrive in this fight, and I will recommend you to the path of the Warp Spider Exarch._

His eyes opened, his off hand drawing the last of his melta bombs he had brought today, and warp jumped, landing behind the prime leading the group near where the allied mon-keigh would be entering.

 _Mon-Keigh believe that the path of the Exarch is one bound by consuming bloodlust._

He fired the fusion gun as he landed, already swinging the melta to connect to the back of the prime. The blast of the fusion gun took out four geth chassi, and then he jumped away, the melta bomb consuming the prime as he jumped to the second group.

 _They are wrong, as they always are._

He fired the fusion gun, cutting the prime in half, before jumping away, landing behind one of the elevated turians. He drew his blade and struck with the same movement, bisecting the opponent's head, before dropping and rolling to the side as one of the geth fired at him.

 _The path of the Exarch is instead one of unparalleled focus._

He was standing beside one of the geth with a flamethrower, his sword already severing the fuel lines, causing a fire on the fuel tank. The second flamer unit turned and fired, the flames eagerly leaping from the weapon toward him, but he jumped again, feeling heat on his back as the warp generator began protesting his rapid assault. He ignored it, landing between three krogan.

 _You will walk an impossible path, the threads of fate tightening and slackening as you advance and strike._

Arlas came back from his memory standing over a gasping, dying asari, stabbed twice in the chest. He was losing himself in the weaves, and sidestepped a biotic orb. He warped jumped away, the pack now boiling on his back, and paused to vent the excess heat, shrouding a quarter of the room in mist as the vents hit the frigid air in the secure lab. Shots screamed by him, aiming where he had been, but quick movement prevented them from hitting him.

 _To falter is death and failure. To succeed is to court the Crone, and chance being called to her early. Such risks are necessary, to ensure the survival of the craftworlds._

He was losing track of reality and memory, but most of his opponents were down, but he had no idea how long he had been fighting. Then he took a shotgun to the side. His armor caught it, but the impact caught him off guard, and knocked him to his back. A quick roll and a warp jump got him out of danger, but he was completely out of synchronization with the threads of Fate, and had no idea now which were about to tighten, and which were slackening, to dump him in the void.

Realizing he needed to drop the Exarch sense, he jumped again as his danger sense screamed, and swore as a glowing greenish-red miasma formed where he had been, and began tracking him slowly across the room, but dissipated before it got halfway to him. Two krogan were advancing down parallel walkways, a geth juggernaut and destroyer assisting them, and he could see three asari around the cloaked leader, who was lowering their hand, four glowing golden eyes all he could see of them. Fire from the side alerted him to two geth troopers and another destroyer, but the rest of his opponents seemed…

He frantically dropped to a crouch as his dangersense shrieked at him, barely avoiding having his head taken off by a sniper round from a turian on the uppermost walkway. Realizing he was being surrounded and on the far side of the room from where the mon-keigh would be entering, he snagged a grenade off his belt and threw it at his feet. It exploded, filling the area with a bubble of psyker energies, completely cutting him off from the opponents. At least from their ranged attacks, they could still walk through the shimmer orb's barrier. He took a moment to consider his options, ignoring the fire from his opponents as it hit the field and stopped.

He did tense as one of the hostile asari threw a biotic orb at him, but it slowed significantly when it connected with the field, making dodging the attack simple. The eldar gave a mocking bow to his opponents, before drawing his sword in his main hand, keeping his fusion gun in his off hand. For a second, nothing happened, then the krogan and geth charged. Arlas ignored their weapon fire, watching it hit the shimmering field, waiting for them to get in the field before firing. Most of his attention was on the three asari and the leader, before shifting his attention to the turian. Done ensuring he knew exactly where all the enemies were, he set himself to receive the geth and krogan charge.

His was almost disappointed when the geth juggernaut charging him suddenly flailed as it lifted off the ground, and then exploded like a bomb in a burst of blue, taking out the nearest krogan and staggering the other krogan and geth destroyer near it. Guessing his allies had finally deigned to show up, he slammed both his fusion gun and sword onto his back, and drew his long rifle, warp jumping up to the walkway behind the turian. He executed the turian by placing the barrel of his geth long rifle against the back of his head and pulling the trigger before the turian even realized he was there. He threw himself down on the corpse, using it for additional cover, before picking off the two geth troopers.

He ducked back to try and avoid a spinning disk from the geth destroyer that had been with the two troopers, but it exploded in a crackling field, making him wince in pain as his rifle suddenly howled its overheating warning. He quickly dropped the weapon as every vent opened, not quite avoiding getting his hands burnt by the steam. His armor caught most of the heat, but his hands still felt a bit stiff. Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the barrel and collapsed the weapon, slamming it back onto its holder before throwing a plasma grenade into the cluster of asari.

The leader gestured at the flying orb, and with a flick of its wrist sent the orb careening towards Arlas' allies. Arlas mentally grabbed and twisted the energies in the grenade before it reached the group, causing it to detonate early. Cursing aloud, he hated intelligent and quick witted enemies, he drew his fusion gun and sword, before warp jumping into the midst of the asari.

He was quickly lifted and then flung to one side, having been anticipated, but he managed another warp jump before he was hit with a warp or a geth rocket attack. He reappeared low to the ground, and hooked his power blade into the grating to keep him from floating off, cursing softly as he kept low and waited for it to wear off. Arlas glared at Wrex as he slammed into the ground beside him a few seconds later. "Hey there Elfy, glad to see you left something for the rest of us."

Arlas glared as he heard several biotic explosions on the other side of the tank sized structure in the center of the room, but the firing kept on, unabated. He activated his omnitool, and rejoined the team channel, listening to the call outs while he waited for the biotic lift to wear off. They were down to a pair of geth destroyers, two asari, and the leader, but the last one was effectively stonewalling the entire group with the other opponents' support.

Even as he watched, the leader unit gestured at an incoming warp, deflecting the orb to arc up and around the cover, before throwing another of those greenish red clouds. He watched Tali frantically dive away from the cloud, but Liara didn't see the manifestation until it was too late, and screamed in pain as it enveloped her. When the cloud cleared a few seconds later, Liara was on the ground, unmoving, blood oozing from several gashes on her face.

Arlas was a bit surprised at how angry the sight of Liara on the ground bleeding made him. But it was modestly scary at how his rage amplified when he watched Tali get hit by one of the geth destroyer's micro-rockets. Tali landed hard, but managed to roll behind cover before the next micro-rocket hit. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, before feeling the biotic lift wearing off, as Joannis came over the comms. "Damn, can't get close. Tali, Liara, report. Are you alive?"

Tali responded, her voice laced with pain and broken by gasps. "Alive… think I broke… something. Managed… to isolate… my suit breach… But I… uh…"

Liara didn't respond at all, and Joannis couldn't get Tali to respond again. Both were in cover though, and their omnitools were still broadcasting their lifesigns. Then the door the others had come through opened, and Arlas twisted, seeing what ha come through, fearing it was the Tyranids he had encountered. Thankfully, it was the two newest additions to the group, the asari and volus.

Before they could do anything, the three asari opponents gestured to the row of computers and equipment that Tali and Liara had been using as cover, trying to biotically warp and fling the cover out of the way to get to the two down behind it.

A roar of rage made Arlas flinch and turn, expecting the two tyranid warriors to have dropped onto someone, but instead spotted a streak of blue heading for the enclosed area the seven remaining enemy held. Jaclyn slammed into one of the geth destroyers, literally tearing its torso apart from the impact. She quickly lept into the air before slamming back into the ground, crackling with energy that erupted outward in a sphere from her, knocking the asari off their feet, the remaining geth bounced off the cover it had been using before falling, and the leader staggered but managed to catch itself with one hand, the other raised to put a barrier up between it and the human vanguard.

Jaclyn ignored the leader, and instead yanked her shotgun out, quickly shooting each asari in the head, the point blank shots turning their heads to mush. Garrus' long rifle barked twice, and blew the head off the last geth destroyer.

Then the leader finished getting its balance, and gestured with the hand that had been holding the barrier, releasing the energy as a massive sphere that appeared almost on top of Jaclyn. The human vanguard frantically jumped backwards, trying to get her shotgun around, but the sphere suddenly detonated, flinging her backwards to slam into the wall before limply sliding down. The leader turned and gestured at the asari spectre who was just about to charge it, and stopped as a biotic field suddenly appeared around her. She cursed and dropped into cover, avoiding a second biotic attack, but Arlas swore.

Because he recognized that attack, a dark channel, despite having never seen it before and being only slightly familiar with biotics. He would have to meditate on where this information came from, and why seeing it so enraged him, though it was a thin, fleeting rage, easily controlled and dispelled. Not at all like an Eldar's true rage.

Arlas shook off his wandering thoughts, as the leader tore off its cloak and threw it into an incoming warp, disrupting the attack, and revealing its true appearance. It was clearly insectoid, with two arms that ended in three fingers, a leg that had two toes, a large, elongated and tapered head, clearly vestigial limbs and a casing for it on its back, and black chitin covered a significant portion of its body. What wasn't covered in ash-black chitin was distinctly unhealthy orangish hued flesh.

Despite the appearance causing an unusual rage actually similar to an Eldar's in its intensity, Arlas wasn't sure why a half melted insect would enrage him so. He drew his flamer pistol, figuring fire would panic the leader, before jumping behind it. He landed behind the leader, impressed it was already turning toward him, its rifle unfolding as it turned. It looked like something a Tyranid would carry, disgustingly organic curves with metal pieces jutting out like misshapen teeth.

Arlas' initial sword swipe scraped along the greenish-red barrier, but the flames engulfed the creature, quickly eating through its barrier and engulfing the creature. Instead of flailing around like most creatures would, the half melted and now burning creature instead simply leveled its rifle at his chest, and fired. Arlas took six shots to the chest and stomach before he could warp jump out, and though he knew his armor caught a number of the shots, he had taken at least two hits.

He landed heavily, leaning against the container in the center of the room on the other side from the leader, and pulled out a block of wraith webbing, before placing it over the two holes and activating it with a thought and a burst of psyker energy. The temporary wraithbone sealed the hole, and he could remove it later with another burst of energy, but for now he wasn't leaking as much anymore and could move without worrying about ripping the wound wider.

He got around the corner, just in time to see Joannis flaring with biotic energies, clearly listening only to the power within her. A quick glance showed the leader struggling, but floating up into a singularity wide enough to cover the entire platform Saren's lackies had been using for cover. More concerning was that he couldn't see any of the bodies that had been on it, and the singularity didn't have a black center the size of his fingernail, but rather one the size of his fist.

The reason for the larger core became apparent as the leader touched it with the end of its leg, and suddenly it was yanked inside the hole. Arlas blinked, before watching the singularity fade away, and then Joannis collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. She glanced about, before forcing herself to stand. "Ashley, check Jaclyn. Arlas, how you doing? Vasir, could you check Liara? I will get Tali. Dilteer, find out why they were protecting that console. Wrex, overwatch, make sure we don't get ambushed."

Arlas took a breath, before forcing himself to not cough. "Been better."

He stared at the mon-keigh for a moment, before she nodded, reaching up to pop her helmet open, cleaning blood from her nose and the corner of one eye. "Fine, get the wounded back to the ship once we get done checking them. Ashley and Wrex will help get them there and then return."

Arlas nodded, glad to be done with this mission, and moved to pick up Tali in both arms to keep her sluggishly bleeding gut wound from stretching more. Ashley grabbed Jaclyn, and Wrex hoisted Liara up and over his shoulder, before they headed toward the tram. Once he set Tali on one of the seats, he waved to Ashley. "She is still bleeding."

Ashley glared at him. "Then use medigel on her."

Arlas tilted his head slightly. "Use what?"

That got both of his conscious companions' attentions. After a moment, Ashley finally managed to speak. "How do you not know what medigel is?"

He just sighed, ignoring her as he turned his attention to his pilot. *( _Yol'Pvera, what did you need?_ )*

She sent back her annoyance at how long he had taken, but replied readily enough. * _The singing 'artifact' you found? It was an egg. It hatched. It was released from the ship to ensure it didn't damage anything._ *

He let out a mental groan, before leaning against the wall. *( _How long ago did it get off?_ )*

* _About a solar mark._ *

He did some quick math, converting the eldar times to local mon-keigh, and sighed. *( _Almost an hour, right. Thank you for informing me. We have wounded, and will be taking them to the larger vessel._ )*

Arlas tapped his omnitool, trying to alert Joannis to the new development, but she didn't answer. He glared at the omnitool, before looking up as the tram lurched, indicating it was leaving. He stood up and moved a ways from the others, before jumping back to the landing. He sent a message to Kaidan and Garrus as he walked to the secure lab. _Multiple wounded on the tram back, meet with Ashley and Wrex to assist in moving them._

He finished the message, and then paused, having just entered the common room turned charnel room, his subconscious noting something. It took a couple seconds to realize what was wrong, but when he did he immediately drew his fusion gun and sword.

A couple of the piles of meat had been shifted, one of them significantly, like something large and heavy had kicked it.

He stepped back into the door to the security room he had just come out of, and observed the common room, trying to get an idea on how big the creature that had kicked it must have been. The pile he had noted was what was left of the elcor, so whatever it had been must have been as heavy or heavier than Wrex. But even as he observed that, his subconscious nudged him again, and after a moment he realized the problem. The bloodstain between the arm and the pile was too big. Something hadn't kicked the arm, something had picked it up, turned it over, and then dropped it.

Something intelligent had been examining the elcor arm, and had likely accidentally shifted the pile. He suspected the tyranid warriors, but there was no real proof of his suspicion, so he simply shelved it and moved into the room. Though he first pumped power into his cloak, fading from view.

He got through the room without issue, but couldn't shake the feeling something had been watching him. He stepped through the door he had melted, though he didn't turn his back on the room until he was at the door to the next room. Stepping into the next one, he saw the four spectres on the platform Saren's forces had been holding, talking to an asari that seemed to barely be on her feet, a gaping hole in her gut. But what got his attention was the powerful psychic emanations coming from the now revealed enclosure, though he couldn't see what was inside from his current angle.

Arlas had only to take a few steps forward, before he saw enough. A massive, four legged insect with glowing white eyes, two massive tendrils tipped with deadly looking manipulators, and a beak that looked like it could rip out an ork's brain without breaking the skull. It might not be a tyranid hive queen, but he wouldn't know either way, having never seen one or encountered anyone that had survived seeing one.

But he knew what to do, even without knowing if it was a hive queen or not. He put his sword away, and walked around the tank to the other side. He could hear the four spectres debating what to do with what they called the Rachni Queen, unaware he was about to take the decision out of their hands. His steps were unheard, not that they would hear him even if he wasn't deliberately trying to avoid being detected, and leveled the fusion gun, as the insect's head turned to him, suddenly noticing him. He ignored it, and simply began pulling the trigger, more than ready to do his duty to the craftworld.

 _A/N - *slams head against desk repeatedly* Another chapter that I couldn't write well, mostly because there is damned little on Noveria that I can toy with. And just following the canonical storyline is boring._

 _Oh, did Arlas kill the queen? Stay tuned to find out. Same Eldar channel, same Eldar time!_

 _Anyway, complete the usual author requests of Follow, Fav, and Review, as well as pop over to the poll I have going._


	28. Interlude

**Interlude**

' _I love having multiple enemies on the same battlefield. Makes them more likely to get in each other's way.'_

Subject: REPORT URGENT \- Batarian attack on Eldar vessel

TO: Admiral Adam Barton of the Second Fleet;

Summary: Eldar do not need our help, and have begun returning some signals.

On the fourth day of the third week of the fifth month of patrolling the area around the Eldar ship, which we have learned is named _Raibh Karun_ as closely as I can pronounce the name, and that it translates roughly to Night Scout according to the Pathfinder, when an unscheduled patrol entered the system through the relay to Kite's Nest. It took us five minutes to confirm it was a group of twenty batarian ships, two cruisers, a dozen frigates, and a half dozen transports, during which they set course for the Nirvana, and jumped to FTL. At thirty minutes after entering the system, they reverted to realspace from FTL, and oriented to Nirvana, formed into a combat wedge and began accelerating toward my patrol. As my last report stated, we had only a cruiser and four frigates as Command had recalled the rest of the squadron, but we prepared to do our duty in spite of being outnumbered.

Eden Prime was scrambling their defense fleet, but with the orbital defenses taken out by the geth and not yet replaced, the captain still temporarily in charge of planetary defense was wary about being drawn off by this group only to have a larger group jump in and hit the planet. Regardless, it was my five ships versus their twenty, though only fourteen were warships. As the batarians approached, though, the eldar ship below us learned of the attack through the comms officer of my ship, and took apparent offense to being targeted by slavers. And at almost a million kilometers between them and the batarians, the Eldar ship opened fire with its broadsides.

The first three volleys took out four of the frigates each, before they began cutting the cruisers to pieces. Once the military vessels were gone, they began butchering the batarian transports. They got eight of the frigates with the first two volleys before we figured out what was going on, and the batarians took the third volley before they did. The cruisers attempted to evade, but were too slow to react, though they still took two volleys to kill.

Sir, I have attached the video file of the batarian ships getting carved into pieces because, with God as my witness, I have no words for watching that fleet get butchered by what appeared to be secondary weapons at over fifteen times our own ship's max effective ranges with our main cannons. Even as the batarian patrol broke ranks to try and evade the Eldar lasers, more of the Eldar shots hit than not, even with a three second delay between firing and the shots hitting, and not one batarian ship made it back to the relay. I don't know how they could have hit that high of a percentage of shots at that range against actively evading ships, but I do know we need their targeting systems yesterday, if not sooner.

Sir, with all due respect, the Eldar here don't need our help, and I believe they are more amused by us trying to protect them than anything else. I understand the need to make a statement about standing by our word, but I would rather such a stand happen when not in the field of fire of the guns on a single wreck that can kill my squadron before we even understood what happened.

Respectfully;

Captain Jakob Naseem, Cruiser Houston of the Second Fleet

* * *

Subject: INFO - Eldar Race report, Initial

TO: Admiral Hackett, Fifth Fleet Commanding Officer;

Summary: The eldar are a race of psychic warriors, of surprising physical and mental capabilities, despite their similarities to humans.

Before I begin, please note that all conclusions from this report are based on observation of a single male subject, that was aware that he was being observed for the entirety of his stay, barring a pair of incidents when he was significantly injured, which is when we obtained most of our observations of his internal structure. This may have caused him to deliberately 'adjust' our impressions of his race, though if he has, why, and for what purpose are unknown.

The subject in question stands approximately two and a quarter meters tall, which he claims is the average and normal for eldar. This leads to him towering over the rest of the crew, and only the krogan battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, already quite large for a krogan, matches him in height, though that requires including the krogan's hump. His appearance is remarkably similar to the old fantasy and folk stories of the elves and fae, with long, pointed ears, overly large almond shaped bronze colored eyes, an elongated skull, and jet black hair that reaches to the middle of his back, usually kept in a single braid when not tucked into his helmet. His anatomy is unusually similar to humans to the casual glance, closer to us than even the asari.

Getting information beyond a simple superficial glance has been surprisingly difficult to obtain; almost all of the physical information was due to two visits to the medical bay after he sustained serious injuries. The very first thing we did was get copious amounts of blood samples. The forced recovery of his injuries also allowed for a more thorough observation of the Eldar.

The first thing we found was that our onboard medical computer and crew were incapable of decoding most of his DNA, but were able to note a few interesting facts about it before sending the results and samples to Command for analysis. For comparison, the human genome is twenty three chromosomes in double helix formation with an extra chromosome specifically for gender, though it can sometimes form triple or quadruple helix strains in the correct conditions. What little we know of the Protheans indicates that their base DNA was quadruple helix strains, though how many chromosomes is an open debate among scholars and scientists, though most agree it is between thirty and thirty four. The Eldar genome has actually caused our onboard computer to crash halfway through mapping it three times, but we know it is at least a pentagonal helix strain, contained traces of both levi- and dextro-protein strands, and had at least thirty seven chromosomes according to the reconstruction of the most completed crashed data.

The next thing we noted were his muscles, which were unusually strong and powerful for their size. The muscles were not obviously different from how a human would be put together, but small, subtle changes to ensure maximum control and power from them, far exceeding what a normal human could do before they became in danger of being damaged. Computer simulation has put his strength at nearly double human norms, though how much of that is due to training and fitness instead of pure genetics is an open question.

Next examined were his bones, several were broken from the fight on the downed Eldar ship in the Plutus system, so while resetting them our medical officer was able to scan and examine them closely. They were hollow but had bracing spurs through them, making them extremely light weight, but also incredibly strong, not calcium based like human bones, but made of, or at least reinforced by, some other substance the computer couldn't identify, possibly even the 'wraithbone' they use in their weapons and armor. My medical officer was also convinced that the body used the hollow sections of the bones to move various fluids around to accelerate healing and recovery, based on the fact the bones had already started binding back together, but we had no way of proving this without being indulging in exploratory invasive surgery, which the Eldar would have certainly reacted violently to when he discovered it.

While the Eldar was unconscious, we were able to perform an CT scan of his head, and the results were amazing, even compared to the rest of what we had learned. The Eldar brain has not two lobes like a human, but four distinct lobes. Left, right, upper back, and lower middle, and masses at least half again what a human has. Without significant invasive surgical investigation, our medical officer could only guess the functions, but stated that she suspected the left and right lobes handled much the same function as our own. She did postulate that one of the two unknown lobes dealt with his psyker powers, though not which one, and the purpose of the final lobe, was completely outside her ability to make an educated guess.

Finally, the Eldar psyche. While not trained in analyzing alien psychologies, I have noted a few points about our resident that should be made public knowledge. First is that the Eldar language is exceedingly complex, and according to Arlas is divided into four parts. From least to most important, they are spoken 'words,' tone, body language and gestures, and finally psyker emanations that they use for most communications. His most often repeated suggestion, as well as condescension, to us about communicating is 'stop using your hands and arms to talk,' often including a couple of Eldar 'words' that he refuses to translate. Apparently every gesture has a meaning, not just adding emphasis, and moving one's hands around is talking loudly, while moving your arms is yelling, and that isn't going into the possible meanings of the gestures.

The eldar also take grudges, threats and insults exceedingly seriously, and Arlas has pointed out that, if he didn't need us to get around, several times he would have been justified, by Eldar standards, in killing the entire crew for the unintentional insults from one crewman. He has since mellowed, but interactions with other Eldar will need to be handled carefully. **Exceedingly carefully**. He suggested that all exchanges start with an apology for unintended insults, and that people keep their hands clasp in front of them if civilian, or behind them in a loose parade rest if military. Those two stances are apparently considered neutral, indicating the position of the speaker doesn't translate to the listener and claiming they are a 'non-warrior' or 'warrior,' rather than adding some subtext or tone to the words. Most Eldar don't use them, but that is what they are for.

Another aspect of the Eldar psyche is their use of psyker communications to facilitate in the planning of group actions. According to Arlas, his craftworld has the senior Exarches come up with battle plans in the field, with junior exarches and the senior aspect warriors linked to them to provide their thoughts, and the junior warriors linked to the senior warriors to give their impressions of the plan as it is drawn up. Plans can radically change in a heartbeat as one junior warrior makes an off-handed remark, while other times the senior exarches draw up a plan and no one suggests modifications to it. If a Farseer is present, they then are asked to use their experience and 'future sense' to ensure the plan is optimal, and after the Farseer or seers have their look, it goes back to the exarches for either further review or dissemination to their warriors. If modified, it will then go back to the Farseer to repeat the process until the plan is acceptable, though the Farseer can overrule the exarch council in emergencies or when they feel time is of essence.

And as a finale, a couple notes about the Eldar psyche, despite the flexibility implied by the planning process details previously, Arlas has repeatedly stated that he cannot fathom how someone is able to do anything without focusing completely on whatever they are working on. Arlas has claimed the only way to excel at a job is to focus totally on it, revealing a potential weak spot in their profile, that they can only focus on one thing at a time, though their improved natural abilities means it will be difficult to exploit should we come into conflict with the Eldar.

The other exploitable hole in the Eldar psyche is that they consider losing an eldar during combat to be a loss, though Arlas has not said as much, instead determined from his reactions to how we set up or advanced in combat. Not a setback, or a hole to be filled, but that they lost the fight. While they understand that lives might have to be spent to achieve their objectives, they are incredibly wary about wasting lives, and will often times focus on survivability over other considerations when in combat. This is possibly due to the longer life span leading to increased time to maturity, and longer times between breeding for their females. Though so far he has been reluctant to discuss specifics about his people's life span specifics, other than maximum age.

Again, all of these results were taken or extrapolated from a single subject that knew he was under observation, so some or even all of these results that were not backed up by scans may be utterly and completely wrong.

Respectfully;

Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, N7 Adept

* * *

 _Subject: Council meeting log, video communication, 2183-88a.1, subject: Noveria Fallout_

 **Sparatus, Turian Councilor** : So, I have read the report on what the human spectres found on Noveria, and I am quite curious to hear why the STG either missed this or failed to inform us.

 **Tevos, Asari Councilor** : Councilor Sparatus, please remain civil. Noveria is an independent colony…

 **Sparatus** : That revived the Rachni and were conducting tests to turn them into disposable shock troopers! I don't care what laws are in place, that is a violation of every spirits be damned law of common sense. What I should do is have a fleet park over their heads and reduce that colony to rubble for such stupidity, or at very least the isolated research labs.

 **Valern, Salarian Councilor** : All messages from Noveria have been checked, and all of them were heavily modified from the original content. All STG knew was that something illegal was going on there. That was the entire point of the colony, to conduct such illegal corporate research in a known place to contain it. We simply were unable to determine what was occurring without physically breaching the facility.

 **Sparatus** : Well congratulations, it worked. We would have known EXACTLY where the Rachni were swarming from for the second war.

 **Tevos** : Councilor Sparatus, remain civil please. We need to discuss what we are going to do about this unsettling situation…

 **Sparatus** : Unsettling? That is putting it mildly. Treasonous would be a better term in my book.

 **Tevos** : Sparatus! Civility.

 **Sparatus** : NO! You want to pretend you were in control, fine, you do that. I am looking at the video the Twins and Icivia provided, as well as the notes. Eight spirits be damned days from the Queen reaching three months of age and apparent egg laying maturity to until the Shepard Twins showing up. Seven hours after the first laying until the first egg being hatched, and an HOUR from then to the declaration of Omega Protocol, and by the time the Spectres arrived, the Rachni had more than a hundred rachni warriors and eight hundred workers rampaging through that facility, and enough eggs to easily double that if not triple it in storage! And that wasn't counting the two new rachni that the eldar encountered and recorded. If they hadn't had the ground team they did… I doubt even a veteran Turian Blackwatch squad, including the legendary 1st Squad, would have fared as well, and I know an STG or Asari Commando squad would have failed.

 **Valern** : … I expected you to be more upset about the Twins letting the Queen go. Or that they had apparently had a live rachni queen egg with them for some time.

 **Sparatus** : … I will admit being less than pleased about that, but Icivia has had nothing but praise for the human Twins so far, and even her complaints are basically that they do not perform as a Turian would. Her comments on the Eldar have been less than civil, but she admits he hasn't tried to inhibit the mission, or conceal anything, only that he has an attitude problem and an inherent, almost compulsive disrespect toward superiors. And even with those problems, she would trust him at her back on any mission without reservation, the worse the mission the more she does trust him. If they believe the Queen can be trusted… then I am willing to give her a chance. Though only because we tracked her leaving the planet.

 _No activity for thirty seven seconds._

 **Tevos** : That is… surprising, considering your response during the video debrief with the Twins.

 **Sparatus** : That response was because they didn't even attempt to clear it with us. Making a call of that magnitude is a Spectre's job, yes, but the elder Ranchi Queen wasn't going anywhere. They could have left a guard squad in the room while they called and asked for clarification. Besides, I am not supposed to like humans.

 **Valern** : Hmph. How did you track her? We had no satellites or ships around the planet at the time.

 **Sparatus** : Icivia injected a tracking beacon into the egg while it was on board after doing some scans of it. She couldn't get a conclusive scan result of the occupant, something in the egg's shell was disrupting her omnitool scans, revealing only that the occupant was moving under its own power, but she wanted to make sure she could find it if it hatched and tried to hide somewhere on the ship and was dangerous. As for the elder queen, she was given three tracking beacons by the lab personnel, likely for the same reason. Their frequencies were mentioned in the report.

 **Tevos** : Where did the Queens go?

 **Sparatus** : We tracked the signal to Ismar Frontier relay system, then it headed off into deep space. We haven't explored the system they were extrapolated as heading towards, but we know what relay they used and I am already talking with the Primarchs about fortifying it, as well as routing the occasional patrol into the system to keep an eye on them.

 **Tevos** : What transmitters were use?

 **Valern** : The trackers the lab used were… not exceptional, but still good enough for our purposes. One of Salarian make, another a… Elkoss Combine tracker that stopped working two minutes out of the tank, typical really for volus work, and a human Exogeni Corporation tracker that worked until she left the Noveria system in the Rachni ship they found her egg in. Both trackers that lasted out of the facility indicated the Queens were traveling together.

 **Sparatus** : Icivia used an asari Amili Industries Vestigo transmitter mark nine. Meant for tracking criminals and fugitives across any distance. As long as it remained in a system with a comm buoy, she knew where they were down to a meter, and so did we.

 **Tevos** : That is one of the best transmitters my people make. Very well, I will second the motion to fortify that relay, though add that we should send a diplomatic party to attempt to make contact since these Rachni are peaceful. Or at least appear so. Perhaps we can learn why the first group weren't, or why any Asari that mind merged with them went insane and kept screaming about a 'sour yellow note.' The records of the Rachni War show we tried seven times with five different captured queens, and all the bonding asari reacted identically.

 **Valern** : Very well, fortification of the Ismar Frontier relay on this end, and sending of a diplomatic team. I agree, especially since they use psychic abilities like the Eldar. If the Eldar are coming like the Pathfinder claims, we need more knowledge of their most powerful and unusual abilities. Now, what are we going to do about Noveria?

 **Sparatus** : Mandatory joint turian and human fleet presence in the system with authority to orbitally purge any lab without warning, and a full time Spectre on the ground with access to all systems and the right to make a no-notice inspection of any facility and with full access to all private systems. Not negotiable. I would like a base with troops as well, but I doubt anyone of the quality needed at such a location would stay for longer than one tour.

 **Tevos** : … Joint human and turian?

 **Sparatus** : I doubt it would be nearly as palpable to the humans to have a turian fleet building up in a supposedly human system, and it means the Hierarchy can use it as a forward base for the patrols in the Traverse. It will also allow the Hierarchy to do more thorough and frequent joint fleet exercises with the humans, and ensure that their fleets are up to turian standards before we start agreeing to grant them certain privileges, like guarding the Citadel.

 **Valern** : Fair point. Would suggest Spectre Kakcar Dilteer for position of permanent, on site Spectre. Already there, familiar with many of their systems, has several contacts already in place, and already knows who is important and who is not. Also, as a volus, less likely to be viewed as disruptive as turian or asari Spectre.

 **Tevos** : I agree that would be a good idea, but convincing them to agree will be… difficult.

 **Sparatus** : Then the threat of force or negative publicity from their illegal research will bring them in line. In fact, I am going to suggest opening with the threat of going public with what we know, and blacklisting them in Citadel space if they refuse to comply.

 **Valern** : Agreed. Especially after reading of Binary Helix developing bio-plagues for sale in Terminus systems. They abused our laws for their benefits, now they will be an example on why that is an unwise decision. This can easily be used to increase our authority.

 **Tevos** : … * _sigh_ * Very well, I agree. Though I recommend we allow… 'questionable' research to continue there. If only to keep it contained to one planet and easier to track. Next point, the humans sent us information about a possible base location for Saren, in the Sentry Omega cluster. They haven't narrowed it down to a planet yet, or even a system within the cluster, but I would recommend the STG assist by sending teams to all seven possible systems in the cluster and…

* * *

Subject: Eldar Tech Scans

To: STG Sector Command - Citadel - 7th division

CC: STG Command Council

Summary: Normal attempts to acquire technology have resulted in no successes and loss of significant portion of agents. Request fifteen million credits to procure drone chassis with appropriately advanced base technology and sufficiently advanced VI to modify for attempt.

Due to the repeated failures of standard attempts to acquire new technology from our newest adversaries, a new mechanism must be attempted. Due to similarities between humans and eldar, a new method of acquisition should be explored along human weaknesses. A review of records of human espionage attempts indicate a weakness of males to the allure of sexual encounters, and asari have long made use of similar actions against other races. The humans call the users of the techniques 'red sparrows' after an animal of their homeworld, while the asari call it 'business as usual.'

To this end, I suggest purchasing and modifying an appropriate VI driven companion mech, and then having it delivered to the target. As the target indulges, the mech will gather biological data, and when the target is resting, the mech will scan his technology and relay its scans back to us. A SiliconePartner mech V6c with variable attributes should be sufficient enough, with customization, to provide the necessary chassis, and with enough tweaks to the VI, the target will be unaware of its modifications. Chassis itself will cost seven million credits, with another two million for the required extras. Modifying the VI, however, will require some significant reworking of the inbuilt computer, as well as building a new custom VI for the required scans.

Reporting: STG Citadel Sector Command - 7th division

 _ **Addendum**_ : STG Command - Decision: Action approved with modifications

Review of companion mechs suggest that a RealPartnerMech V10f will be more adaptable to the mission of acquiring eldar technology, for a total estimated cost of eighteen million credits. Fifteen million for the chassis, no cost for the scanner upgrades, and less than three million to modify the VI, rather than replace. Begin immediately.

* * *

 _Report log 67-0000948521; Interface unit 867. &423a - anomalous psionic race_

 _Unit 867. &423a, reporting anomalous active psionic reading in section 421-a67. Source triangulated with units 006.$1t2% and 39*.{4]3#. Probability of unknown individual as source: 99.99987218%. Permission to censure? Y/N._

 **_** : N. Observe only.

 _Disengaging censure mode. Observation mode reengaged. Issuing general alert to all interface units to observe anomalous psionic race 000028, unit 000000000000001. All subtlety units notified of anomalous race unit. Fabricating cleaner unit in pod 0539bn. Anomalous psionic race unit departing area, alerting unit !2c.^g`\1. Resuming normal functions._

* * *

 _Location Unknown_

Enduring Hope finished aligning the vessel for its run up to faster than light speed, before turning and walking back to the resting cabin, considering the recent events. The other races were so strange, so different, except for the one that sang like her kind did, and that one was even stranger.

Fiery Tenacity was the leader, her mind burned bright like a queen's, and it was soft, quick to comfort and gentle, but capable of great fury and deep hate. She was so small, yet had all the strength of soul of one far larger. Hope let herself creel in pleasure at having met that one, and hoped to meet her again soon.

Staunch Watcher was different from the others, like a warrior in mind, firm, unyielding and wary, yet she could sense suspicion and unease when Tenacity had decided to release Hope, though she hadn't said anything. She had simply observed, and waited.

Little Dancer had moved so much, always drawing her attention as it had gracefully danced from one metal container to another as it followed the lights on them. It hadn't said anything to her voice puppet, but she knew it had been listening. It had not been concerned about her, more interested in the containers, so she had paid it little mind after it had found the container it was looking for, and stopped moving.

Astute Stalker had simply stood in the back, listening, her mind in stillness as she had listened and seen everything she could, before simply advising that Tenacity kill Hope. She didn't hold that against Stalker, she was simply trying to protect her sister-kyn, but something in her mind made Hope wary of her, and she did not want to meet Stalker again.

Lonely Sorrowful Shadow was the one most like her kind, and yet the least like them. She could hear his song clearly, yet it wasn't until he had been almost next to her, a metal tube pointed at her, that he had started mind singing. His song had briefly sang of extreme pain, then his song had simply vanished again. She had had to stop her two warriors from leaping to protect her from him. Tenacity had spotted him soon after, and they had talked briefly, before the young queen Great Song had tunneled into the room. His name had come from her, as she had spent time in her egg around him, and the sight of a young queen had caused Tenacity's mind to hardened, before she had chosen to free Hope.

She had felt other minds, but many had been tainted as her kin had been before they had hidden her among the stars, before being mercifully silenced. But too many others had been silenced by their driven fury and insanity, and many remembered the butchery, otherwise they wouldn't have been as disharmonious with Tenacity so much.

The Rachni still lived, and their song would once again echo throughout their planets. Fiery Tenacity would be remembered, and when the sour yellow note returned, this time the broods would be ready. Already two new warriors stood ready to protect her, and many other forms rested in her and the little queen Great Song. This time the song from space wouldn't find only workers and singers, they would find fury and rage, waiting to devour them for their maiming of the song.

* * *

 _Location Unknown_

Farseer Cael'Iadra woke up with a pain in her head of massive proportions, only comparable to the pain she had felt when she had heard that her daughter's murderer was to be sent on a mission of extreme importance for the Craftworld. She reached up to rub away the pain, only to bash her hand against her helmet. The impact caused the Farseer's head to pulse painfully, but it brought her back to full awareness. She winced as she looked around, noting the rest of her group were dead; her Warlocks, the Dire Avengers, and the remaining Striking Scorpion, all dead, many in several pieces. The hull of her transport, a simple Wave Serpent, was perforated in several places, and she could easily see stars.

The sight was incredibly disturbing, as she should only see warp storms; they had been deep in the Eye of Terror. In fact, she should have woke up to a daemon either torturing her or raping her, likely both, if she had even woken up. Seeing only a spinning star field was even worse, in its own way, because she had no idea where she was. She checked her air pack, and was relieved to note there was several hours of air left before it needed to be replaced, and she had several extra packs at hand, her fallen subordinates didn't need theirs anymore. The next thing she did was pull out her healing runes, and began channeling the energies into her, quickly soothing her head pain away, and several other pains she had picked up on that forsaken planet.

Once she finished healing her body, she reviewed what had happened, hoping for some clue as to where she was. She remembered the tome strapped to her thigh, and a quick glance revealed the precious treatise on the Webgates was undamaged, another stroke of fortune in this luckless situation. Then the Wave Serpent with its two Nightwing escorts had arrived, and they had all boarded the transport, before heading back to the Eldar camp. On the way, they had suddenly encountered an intense, localized warpstorm in their path, but before they could divert, a dozen Chaos fighter craft and dozens of armor had come screaming out of it.

The Chaos forces had fired immediately, before the Eldar could even react, almost as if expecting them, blowing apart the two fighters and badly damaging the Wave Serpent. With its engines out, the transport had descended into the warp storm, and after several jarring impacts had caused her to violently slam her head against the hull, she had passed out . Seeing that she wasn't going to figure out where she was just by retracing her steps, she released the gravity tether that kept her attached to the seat, and began collecting spirit stones from the deceased in the troop bay. Once the last one had been collected, she returned the dead to their seats, giving them at least some dignity, before opening the bay door.

Farseer Cael'Iadra stared at the alien vista in front of her for a long moment, at the distant, unknown orange star. She could see a distant planet, but with the sun nearly behind it, she couldn't make anything out, even with her helmet providing a polarity filter to block out most of the blinding sunlight. With an indulgent sigh, she swung herself up and out of the troop bay, to begin inspecting the Wave Serpent, using psyker pulses to direct her movement. However, even the most basic and cursory of glances showed the Wave Serpent was dead, one engine ripped off entirely, the other more hole than engine. The front half of the Wave Serpent was ripped free and missing, the pilot and co-pilot lost.

Cael'Iadra wasn't sure how long she stared at where the missing front half of her Wave Serpent should have been, but eventually she returned to the troop bay, and sat down on her seat, one hand idly stroking the tome that had had such potential to change her people's fate. Now as lost as she was.

The Farseer forced herself to take a deep, calming breath; she was almost four millennia old, and panicking never helped. A quick moment of concentration revealed that her future was oddly clouded, concealed and unable to be divined with any real accuracy, but she knew she wasn't to die here, now; that much she was sure. After a short time recovering her focus, she pushed herself to the back of the Wave Serpent troop bay, where they had stored two stasis pods. They were meant to stabilize badly injured Eldar until they returned to the Craftworld for assistance, but out here, she would do the only thing she could.

A quick interface with the first unit showed it was remarkably intact, and the Wave Serpent was still providing power to it, so it would likely keep her alive in suspended animation for centuries. Hopefully until her people found and recovered her. If not, her spirit stone would drift among the stars, forever waiting for rescue. Not the worst fate she could think of, not by far. She spent a moment modifying the transport to send out a signal in psyker energies, and after a long moment internally debating with herself, included a few more common signals the Tau would notice as well. The Ae'Imedra Craftworld didn't have the best relationship with the Tau, but at least they wouldn't kill her without waking her first for an explanation, and would make at least an attempt to ransom her back to her people.

Done doing what she could to ensure her rescue, Farseer Cael'Iadra entered the stasis pod, first securing her Singing Spear and pistol to a holder inside, and sealed the pod from the inside with a moment of concentration. As the pod activated, she collapsed her armor so she could at least rest comfortably, the wraithbone armor collapsing into a several bands around her neck, along her back and legs, leaving her clad mostly in her skin tight bodysuit with only a badly damaged tabard covering that. She forced herself to relax as the pod began slowing her vital functions, her last conscious thought being that she hoped some mon-keigh wouldn't find her. The last thing she needed was their lewd thoughts about her, clouding her mind as she woke up.

 _A/N - Eldar biology and physiology brought to you by FakeIt Co, supplier of facts to every SciFi writer ever. And if some of them are wrong, remember Arlas is trying to not give the mon-keigh too much useful information. Except when he is._

 _Also, Eldar laser weapons are OP, please nerf now for use in ME-verse. And yes, I sat down, did the math, and they totally could wipe that many out before they could react and flee. Bypassing kinetic barriers is such a mean trick. Using foresight to aim is just as mean. And yes, it is a three second travel time for the lasers, but by the time the batarians realized what had happened, realized it was an attack, begin to evade, figured out who was in charge to call a retreat (and take the blame for the raid failure)… three salvos, fourth on the way, and only the unwieldy transports are left._

 _And yes, that one part with the mention of units and the unusual designations wasn't supposed to make sense. Yet. Though I don't doubt that at least some of you will figure out what it was referring to._

 _Anyway, please do the usual after-story actions. Fav, Follow, Review, Vote on my poll (I try to always have one going), but most importantly, enjoy. Oh, and tell your friends. More readers, yes…_


	29. Solving Asari Problems

**Chapter 27 - Solving Asari Problems**

" _Ask an Imperial about Eldar diplomacy, and assuming they don't just give you hysterically laughter, they will say that Eldar only use it to get into position to put a knife in your back." - Inquisitor Garret 'Flamebringer' Ajax of Ordos Xenos_

" _Humans. Foolish animals. Unable to see what must happen, and they call us fickle and capricious? We use what we must to ensure tomorrow follows today." - Farseer Eligor, male Senior Seer Council member, Craftworld Ae'Imedra_

Arlas looked up from his seat in his personal room on the lander as Yol'Pvera contacted him. * _The noisy mon-keigh is at the bay door, and is displeased. Did you skip the debrief again?_ *

*( _When is she not?_ )*

His pithy reply didn't amuse the spirit, and he tied off the energies he had been directing into his two wounds through the healing rune. A moment pulling up his undersuit, and he strode out to the troop bay. He sealed the door to the armory, and then opened the troop ramp. "Lioness."

The human was apparently not in the mood for games. "What were you doing in the secure lab the second time? You were ordered to go with the others to the lander."

Arlas sighed, apparently wiping out a room full of enemies on his own had not impressed the mon-keigh. Or perhaps her annoyance had overridden her fear. But he wasn't going to admit he went in there to kill the insect queen, only to stop when his dangersense had screamed in utter terror at him as he had leveled the fusion gun. "Ensuring something wasn't to become a problem later."

She waited, before reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose and grimacing as she realized that was all she was getting. She glanced at his gut, before shaking her head. "Well, since you weren't injured enough to require Doctor Chakwas' attention, suit up. We have a mission. Noveria debrief after that, and you are **required** to attend."

That surprised him, and made him consider reporting to the doctor, though he figured the healer was too busy with actual injuries to deal with the minor scrapes he had. "By your command."

He headed back into the lander without waiting to be dismissed. He had to do some spot patches on the armor, and put the damaged death spinner away. He didn't remember his weapon getting damaged, and that concerned him. He had entered the state of Exarch before, but this was the first time he had not remembered everything he had done during it. He would have to be more careful, and talk with a Farseer before he entered the state again willingly.

Done suiting up, he glanced at the Wraithguard, standing in its holder with its three weapons encased around it, and suddenly smiled. *( _Kap'Eiyl. Starcannon, shuriken cannon, or D-cannon?_ )*

The spirit wasn't expecting his question, and sent back confusion, making Arlas mentally laugh. *( _I was ordered to bring the Wraithguard along on the next mission. What weapon do you want?_ )*

The spirit was silent for a moment, before sending malicious pleasure. * _Starcannon. Not sure what we will be up against, so want something reasonably effective against anything._ *

He smirked, before pulling the spirit stone out of his armor, and slotting it into the chest holder for the Wraithguard. As Kap'Eiyl's mind expanded to fill the wraithbone construct, Arlas began checking the starcannon to ensure it was undamaged. Arlas finished the checks as Kap'Eiyl finished taking control of the Wraithguard, and slammed shut the armored chest, sealing his spirit stone inside the construct, before grabbing the starcannon.

A minute later, they were in the elevator, and Kap'Eiyl had joined the group of beings that thought the damned thing was too damned slow. Arlas let him complain, and led the way up to the airlock near the pilot's station. The asari and volus spectre had stayed back on Noveria, and with Liara, Tali, and Jaclyn in the medical bay, it was a smaller group than normal near the airlock. Joannis wasn't in her armor, instead standing above the map station in her fatigues, examining the fourth planet in the system while she began briefing the team. "And with Arlas here we can begin. Sensors picked up a signal from the fourth world in the Pax system of the Horse Head Nebula, quickly cut off. We came closer to do a more detailed scan and found an asari vessel with a pair of turian frigates alongside. The turian vessels show signs of being pirates, and the asari vessel is damaged. No one has responded to hails. Under the circumstances, I am assuming the asari vessel is in distress and requires assistance. We are going to disable the pirate vessels, then board the asari vessel to assist as able. Lieutenant Kaidan will be in charge of the boarding team, with Sergeant Williams in charge of the second fire team should they need to split. Arlas you are… what is the Wraithguard doing here?"

Arlas gave her a grin as he finished deploying his helmet, sealing himself in his armor. "Jaclyn wanted it to come on the next mission. So the Wraithguard is coming on this mission. It is the next, yes?"

The glare was reward all its own, as the Wraithguard purposefully strode to the airlock, though it had to crouch the last half of the walk, prepared to lead the attack. Arlas took his place right behind it, before pulling out his fusion gun, his flamer pistol on his hip, long rifle and sword on his back. He was carrying extra grenades for this mission, as ship to ship boarding would be difficult, and extra explosives might turn the fights that could swing either way. He did make a mental note to add a shuriken rifle to his arsenal, if only to give him an option between obliterating the target when he could spit on it and blowing holes in the other side of the ship. A quick glance at his omnitool as it pinged showed that he had received a layout of the three ships, though the layouts did note they were taken from standard blueprints, and the ships they were boarding might not match with them.

Five minutes later, the ship shuddered slightly, so subtly that Arlas was certain that only he felt it, and then shuddered again a few seconds later. Half a minute after that, he reached up and grabbed one of the rails along the ceiling, right before the ship suddenly lurched, and Joker spoke up. "Pirate frigates are missing their asses, but might have a backup generator for secondary weapons. Hurry and board, so I am not a sitting duck here."

Arlas and Kap'Eiyl didn't wait for the pilot to finish, already getting into the airlock. Kap'Eiyl pressed against the door that would open to the asari vessel, Arlas right behind him. Wrex and Ashley were next, taking seats near the door, and Kaidan, Icivia, and Garrus were at the back of the group. As the airlock cycled, the ship's announcement system relayed a message. "... _been set to repeat_. This is asari private vessel Goddess' Fortune, under attack near Veles in the Pax system by pirates. We have a VIP on board, and require immediate assistance from any armed Citadel vessel receiving this. Mayday code alpha gamma seven niner niner victory. I repeat, we have an asari VIP on board, and require immediate assistance. _This message has been set to repeat_. This is…"

Icivia waved her omnitool, before tapping on it, then clenching her mandibles in surprise. "Huh, well haven't ever seen that code before. That is a mandatory 'drop everything and come help code.' 'Vital to continued smooth functioning of government.' Must be related to the asari Council of Matriarchs, maybe even the Empress."

Arlas was busy looking over the asari ship's layout, wondering once again why the asari designed their ships with such long wings and that massive gaping hole in the center. This was a one hundred and fifty meter wide ship with a ten meter wide hole in the center, and the wings extended fifty meters on both sides, leaving the interior fifty meters wide and twenty five meters tall, including the ten meter hole, for crew and ship functions. The vessel was only some seventy meters long, and had seven total decks, assuming the layout was the same as a standard model. Going by the code attached to the message and what Ghost had said about it, he had his doubts.

It took a minute for the airlock to finish matching and synchronizing up with the asari airlock, before Kap'Eiyl shifted forward, the small hatches not meant for three meter tall war constructs. Inside the asari vessel, however, the ceiling soared to nearly four meters, and was richly furnished. Neither eldar bothered to appreciate their surroundings, the pirates firing as soon as the wraithguard left the airlock.

Arlas watched the small pellets that the mon-keigh considered dangerous hit the wraithguard, and simply bounce off its thick armor, before smoothly raising and firing its starcannon. A large round, probably from a long rifle or shotgun, hit the elongated head of the wraithguard, but only dug a small chunk out. The powerful starcannon, however, obliterated the turian pirates it hit, melting torsos and limbs with even glancing blows.

Kap'Eiyl began advancing into the thickest of the fire, ignoring their ineffective return fire, while Arlas activated his cloak, and began sneaking up the side of the hallway, activating his communicator to Kaidan and Joannis back on the ship. "Kap'Eiyl and I will make our way to engineering and clear that. Once done there, we will sweep up the opposite side of the ship, and meet you at the bridge."

He was already leaving, even before anyone replied. After a moment of neither human trying to call him back to the group, he turned his attention back to the corridor in front of him, swapping to his long rifle to shoot a turian in black armor stepping out of a doorway. He frowned, before contacting Joannis. "Lioness, Arlas. How do I tell the pirates from victims?"

"When we hard docked, I was able to contact the captain. It is an asari only vessel, so anyone not in leathers or a white crew outfits is a pirate. The pirates are all turians in black armor without identifying marks, so it will be easy to identify hostiles."

He glanced at the wraithguard as Joannis ended the call, before shrugging. *( _Nice that our enemies are so easy to identify._ )*

The wraithguard shot another pirate, and disabled a grenade by crushing it underfoot. * _Would that we were always so lucky._ *

Arlas laughed, as they continued down the high hallway. With only minimal resistance for the two of them, he was able to take in the surroundings, and found them disgustingly opulent. Plush carpets, paintings and tapestries on the walls, well padded cabinets filled with crystal decanters, it was everything the eldar hated, and secretly feared. It was so similar to what their society had been like right before the fall, full of unnecessary opulence and decadence.

The living eldar idly twisted and flicked his head, his long rifle screaming as he did, avoiding an enemy sniper's attack while his own blew the attacker's head off. He chastised himself, a battlefield was not a place to contemplate the universe. At least not for any useful lengths of time.

The fighting for the rest of the trip to the back of the ship was relatively light, individual and small fireteams of turians stepping out of rooms or setting up crossfires through the doors. The small teams barely even broke the two eldar's strides, as the turians tended to focus on the larger form in the middle of the hallway rather than the one that ducked into doorways and vanished from sight. Arlas was a bit unhappy that his kill count was comparable to the wraithguard's, but in the tight, narrow confines of a ship, that was to be expected.

After a few minutes of fighting, taking out maybe thirty troops, they reached a large, sealed bulkhead. Arlas glanced at the sign on the wall beside the door, which was labeled 'engineering,' before activating his warp jump generator. Kap'Eiyl would wait while Arlas scouted the next room. Arlas jumped to where he expected the ceiling to be on the other side of the door, immediately firing his grapple up to keep him from dropping, trusting his cloak to keep the turian hostiles from spotting him.

He was wrong on both accounts. The ceiling was far higher than he expected, another five meters higher, and he dropped just enough for his cloak to shift from stealth to scatter mode. For all his scorn about their discipline making the turians depressingly predictable, they were still predators, and even slight movement attracted their attention, unlike the oblivious humans. He was just starting to note things when the first bullet screamed past his head, and then the rest of the dozen turians were firing on him even as his cloak shifted back to concealment.

He made a second jump, this time up to the actual roof, and managed to stop his fall before it could reveal him again. He sent Kap'Eiyl the room layout, lots of consoles and machinery, and most of the turians were moving from their positions near the two bulkheads to the search the rest of the room for the intruder. There were four exceptions who were staying put, one at each bulkhead, and two guarding four asari. There were a dozen dead turians, and two dead asari in leathers scattered about the room.

Then Kap'Eiyl burned through the bulkhead with his starcannon, and forced his way into the room. This immediately attracted the attention and fire of all the turians still in the room, though Kap'Eiyl quickly began blasting them apart with his weapon meant to take apart medium and light tanks, as well as heavily armored infantry squads. The turians' barriers stopped the plasma bolts from hitting them directly, but the lightness of their armor meant that the sheer heat from the bolt dispersing right next to them burned and cooked them alive.

Arlas didn't have to do much, other than snipe the two pirates guarding the four asari. He allowed himself to be modestly surprised when the asari, instead of screaming, reacted to the guards messy demise by grabbing their assault rifles, and getting into cover before firing on the nearest turian, tearing him apart before he could react to the sudden attack.

Caught between the invisible eldar hanging from the ceiling, the eldar war construct ripping into them with no concern for their counterattacks, and asari crew women using biotics to tear them out of cover, the turian pirates didn't last long. As the last pirate was lifted by the asari for Kap'Eiyl to use as target practice, Arlas depowered his cloak, and then dropped the ten meters to the floor, landing easily. He flipped his hood down, before turning to the asari, who were pointing weapons at him and the wraithguard, but not firing or flinging biotics. *( _Careful, Kap'Eiyl, a biotic warp could do significant damage to your chassis._ )*

The spirit sent back his understanding, and kept his massive cannon pointed at the ground to one side. The eldest asari of the four finally decided to talk. "Who are you?"

Arlas didn't even hesitate. "Time travelers."

The only noise in the engineering room was the sound of Kap'Eiyl slamming his left palm against his helmet. Arlas sent him a thought while he waited for the asari to get over their shock, unable to filter out his amusement. *( _True no matter how you cut it. I seriously doubt we jumped across universes without at least some temporal drift, and everyone is a time traveler. Moving forward. Most do it automatically though._ )*

Kap'Eiyl's mental groan was all the answer he got, before the asari spokeswoman got her voice back. "Try again, and make it believable this time."

Arlas gave her a shrug. "Fine, I am a forward scout of a super race, here to conquer the pathetic primitives to use as menial labor and concubines."

Kap'Eiyl sent him a feeling of disgust, but the asari were now having a whispered conversation between themselves. "Chief, I think that is the eldar."

"Wait, the one that won the galactic sword tournament?"

"And works with the two new human spectres?"

There was a long moment of silence, before one of the engineers spoke louder. "I'll go get my harem outfit."

Arlas' left hand slammed into his helm with enough force to rock him back a step while Kap'Eiyl's hysterical laughter rung in his head. He knew he was **never** going to hear the end of this 'asari domination' joke now. He spoke before the younger asari could do more than stand up. "Just… seal the damned room and keep the engines from exploding. We are going to push up to bridge."

Kap'Eiyl headed for the door they hadn't burned through, still laughing, but Arlas thought of something. "Why are the pirates here?"

That got a reaction, as all four asari froze, their expressions hardening as they stared at him, then shared a glance with each other. After a few seconds, the one that had been addressed as Chief replied carefully. "This is a VIP vessel of the asari republics, on a recovery mission for the Empress. They may have thought we had someone important on board. And the turians aren't pirates. They called themselves Separatists."

* * *

Icivia sat in the secondary communication room of the Goddess' Fortune, behind the only display that also let her see the door in. She had scattered her turrets around so no section of the room was uncovered, and then canceled the distress call, before cutting off the jamming. A quick glance showed Garrus in cover near the back of the room, sniper rifle at the door, completely focused. She allowed herself a small smile, whoever had put 'insubordinate tendencies' in his file was an idiot.

But since he was so far off, she could do her other job, and tapped into the turian rebel's systems. She recorded everything, and simply watched and listened, and after a moment typed a quick message. She was modestly glad that Tali was unconscious in the medibay, she was the only one that had a chance of catching her doing this, and it saved awkward explanations or worse, confrontations. A moment later, she received a specific countersign, making her smile again. Even better.

A moment of work, and Garrus was none the wiser, as she started getting information from the group. Another quick message, and once she got a reply, she tapped a couple keys, sending the eldar's omnitool frequency and location to the eldar pair, as well as the recommendation to use explosives on the walker. Small arms fire seemed utterly ineffective, and the group lacked biotics.

Two minutes after she started, she put away the second, secret omnitool, and resumed watching the computers. "Garrus, move up and help the others. I can hold here long enough for reinforcements if they somehow circumvent one group."

Garrus looked like he wanted to say something, but after a moment simply nodded. Most other turians would have been incensed by his hesitation, but personally she preferred that in her squad. It meant they were thinking instead of just reacting. Any fool could follow orders and react, it took brains to command, and Garrus was shaping up to potentially be a very unorthodox leader, if not an actual Spectre.

Once he was out of the room, she pulled out the second omnitool again, and sent a longer message, before getting back to work. Being a double agent wasn't the easiest or even most rewarding work, but on missions like this, it definitely showed its value.

* * *

Arlas ducked into cover, and watched the grenade sail past his door frame, making a mental to ask Icivia how she had managed to direct the turian separatists this way. They had brought twenty more troops, blocking the hall with furniture from the nearby rooms, and had a pair of grenade launchers and a missile launcher. Arlas had managed to snipe the missile launcher before it could shoot the first time, but had taken a sabotage attack immediately after, and every time he tried to get back to sniping, the turians bombarded him with more sabotage charges, overloading the heat sinks on the long rifle.

The fire was so thick that Kap'Eiyl had decided to get into cover, firing his starcannon as fast as its heat vents would allow, now that the enemy was using explosive weapons against him. Arlas threw a grenade, blowing open a section of the barricade as the plasma engulfed it, but the turians were smart, perceptive, and attentive. None were caught in the blast. He grumbled as he sprayed with the double pistol, before activating his communicator. "Icivia, Arlas. Did you need to send every last competent opponent my way? I thought Wrex wanted something to play with as well."

The turian female laughed. "What is the matter? Enemy too much for you?"

A turian died as a shot from the starcannon as it melted his helmet, and Arlas snarled something unflattering in his native tongue. He put up the double pistol, drew his flamer and sword, before warp jumping behind the barricade. Suddenly flanked and pinned against their own barricade, the turians frantically tried to reorient on the eldar, but he had killed five before they even began turning, and then he jumped to the other side of the barricade, hacking his way to the center from the other side. Kap'Eiyl suddenly charged, crashing through the barricade and into the distracted enemies' backs.

The turians died as they tried to fall back, the flamer pistol and sword driving them off the barricade and into the open where Kap'Eiyl scythed them all down with his starcannon. Done pushing through the barricade, he contacted Icivia again. "Barricade breached, hostiles terminated. Moving up."

"What… A minute ago there were seventeen on it. There are none now! What the spirits…?"

"Eldar."

He pointed up the hallway, and sent his approval to Kap'Eiyl. He didn't need to send orders, the veteran Shadow Spectre knew you had to press when you breached a line, and was already striding forward. The wraithguards weren't built to sprint, but they could move surprisingly quickly for someone unfamiliar with the design. Arlas just smiled and continued advancing, switching to his long rifle and pushing power into his cloak as he stalked behind the now somewhat mauled wraithguard.

As they advanced to the bridge, Arlas suddenly glanced at one of the stairwells they were passing, and slowed. "Kap'Eiyl, take cover. Something down the stairwell."

He had heard someone talking below him, so softly that even Kap'Eiyl missed it; the turians wouldn't have heard anything. He sent what he had heard, before slipping down the stairwell. He paused twice as his danger sense spiked, and a quick check showed two cleverly concealed traps. One was a simple warp grenade, but the second was a series of flashbangs set into the wall, set to go off as someone stepped on one of the last three steps. The flashbangs would blind and deafen anyone in the stairwell, a clever assistance for anyone in the room who would be expecting the blast.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs, looking into the room. A dozen asari huntresses were scattered about the room, heavy barriers and barricades scattered to provide a vicious crossfire for anyone trying to push in. Arlas spent a moment examining the situation, before frowning and backing up the stairs, and activating his communicator. "Icivia, a dozen huntress at my location, heavily entrenched. Continuing to bridge."

"Not making contact?"

"No point. They are defending a position, and likely the reason for the attack. Location of remaining turians?"

"Clustered in and near the bridge. Trying to repel Wrex and the others. Going to help?"

"Are Orks as stupid as they are odorous?"

"... You know I don't know the answer to that."

Arlas didn't reply, simply heading down the passage to the bridge. The turians wouldn't know what hit them, at least the ones in the passages wouldn't. If the ones in the bridge had a brain, they would have already sealed the bulkheads, and had ordered the ones outside to kill Kaidan's group as quickly as possible and damn the casualties.

He contacted Icivia to get an idea of how many turian pirates were left, and where they were. Their conversation quickly revealed there were two dozen left, most in the passage outside the bridge, holding back the rest of the Normandy group through sheer numbers, but a few were in the bridge. He sent Kap'Eiyl ahead to hit the pirates in the back, while he jumped into the bridge to finish off the pirates.

Arlas was leaning against the wall of the bridge three minutes later, smirking behind his helmet at the mon-keigh just now entering the bridge. His plan had worked with only minor problems, Kap'Eiyl had strode into a portion of the corridor that had been planted with anti-personnel mines, and he had certainly not expected a pair of turrets in the bridge to target him as he had landed. All of the asari on the bridge had been executed by the pirates, making the four survivors in engineering, the dozen asari in the room Arlas had found, and a pair of asari that the mon-keigh squad had saved the only survivors out of forty registered crew, according to a manifest Icivia had found.

He watched the rest of the Normandy's ground team disperse as Joannis issued orders over the communicator, but she hadn't issued any orders for him, so he and the wraithguard began making their way back to the ship. He and Kap'Eiyl were as Joannis issued a message. "All hands, this is the Captain speaking. We are taking on three guests as a courtesy to the Asari Republics, so treat them as VIPs until we get to our next destination and drop them off. All ground team cleared by Doctor Chakwas, to the communication room for debriefing in fifteen minutes. Arlas, report to me before the debrief."

Arlas rolled his eyes, wondering what the human wanted to complain about now. It took a few minutes to finish getting out of the airlock, the decontamination protocol was apparently always active, even when moving between ships, and then there was the wraithguard squeezing in with him. Kap'Eiyl mentally snarled his thoughts on the situation. * _Never again. If I need to get this thing out again, I am leaving through the hangar or the lander._ *

He let the spirit make its way down the walkway at its own speed, while he moved toward Joannis. "Lioness."

The human gave him a glare, before handing him a small data screen. "We have the coordinates of facility that was reviewing the pictures, so you can stop being malicious about following orders. The system is listed on the map as GJ 1245, or Cygni."

He took the data screen, before turning to the map and shifting the view. He ignored the human's glare, inputting the coordinates on the map, and frowned at the listed system. "That is right next to your home system."

Joannis gave him a smirk, before reverting the map back to its previous location, a system with six stars and an asteroid field, orbiting a medium orange star. "Best place to hide something. No planets, three dwarf stars, and enough radiation to convince the curious to not bother. But first, we are swinging by Thessia."

She gestured to the map as she continued. "STG identified a ship with Benezia's transponder moving through the relay network. It is taking a roundabout path, but we think it is heading toward Thessia, the asari homeworld. There are only two places where she can respond to Liara's legal challenge, and there are enough defenses on the Citadel to make that suicide. That leaves Thessia as her destination."

He stared at the map, before turning his head slightly. "And she can not just ignore this… legal challenge?"

"Not if she wants to keep in control of her fiances. Liara undercut her ability to mobilize them to assist Saren, and she has only a day or so leeway between the deadline and arriving on the planet. I have more information, but we can save it for the briefing after the debrief of Noveria and the ship fight."

She glanced at the elevator, before sighing. "And as useful as the wraithguard was, can you not bring it through the command center again?"

He nodded, before heading for the debriefing room. No sense in heading down to the hangar only to come right back up, and using a warp jump was simply excessive since there wasn't an emergency. He took his usual position by the door, making sure the recording crystal was still intact and powered, before pulling out his weapons and beginning to check them over; his armor would have to wait until he got back to the ship. And what he saw was not encouraging. The flamer pistol was showing significant wear on the exterior tubing in spite of his previous repairs and the self repairing nature of the wraithbone, the power blade had a tiny crack along the guard, and the fusion gun was showing some wear on the barrel. He was going to need to do some significant maintenance soon, and that was just on his weapons. The last time he had seen wear on eldar weapons this bad was during his forty year hunt on a chaos infested world, hunting for lost spirit stones and no resupply but what he found or carried with him, and he had done this in less than half a year.

The eldar looked up as the others started entering, before putting away his weapons. Once everyone had arrived that was allowed, he noted they were still missing Jaclyn, Tali, and Liara, and Joannis started the debrief. Sadly, this time he couldn't just passively listen and let the briefing go on, as there was a point where he had been separated from the group, and the others who had been with him were unconscious in the medical bay.

Once the mon-keigh finally finished going over everything in exhaustive detail, Joannis finally moved on to something he was actually interested. "Alright, our next mission is the capture, or failing that the elimination of Benezia T'Soni. According to Liara, her lineage has significant pull with several other lines, and Matriarch Benezia herself has even more with several individuals. So even if she isn't in charge of the T'Soni funds, she can still do some damage. We are currently burning hard for Thessia, but we are going to arrive either at the same time as Benezia, or just behind her.

"Also, we have three asari on board, who will be leaving us at Thessia. Arlas, Wrex, that means avoid them, and be polite if you do have to interact with them. Everyone else, be on your best behaviour. Dismissed."

As everyone started filing out of the room, Joker came over the comms. "Councilors on the line, ma'am. Want to take it, or should I send 'em to voicemail?"

Joannis sighed, before reaching up to pinch her nose. "Dammit Joker."

Arlas smirked as he slipped out the door, heading to the medical bay to check on the gyrinx and his unconscious eldar. He had to give the doctor something, so the eldar wouldn't panic if she woke up and he was out on a mission. It was just a message crystal, but it would help keep her and the gyrinx from lashing out if she came to and he wasn't nearby. Then he headed to his lander, to start making repairs to his weapons, and maybe make a new one, he needed a shuriken catapult, the double pistol just wasn't accurate enough at range. Maybe he could build one into his forearm armor…

He paused as he entered the hangar, thoughts of integrating a shuriken catapult into his armor sidelined by a familiar figure slowly walking around the lander. Lyla Astyonthia, the young asari from the tournament that had actually impressed him, was examining the lander, though she glanced over as the elevator opened. Her mind didn't become laced with fear when she saw him, but, surprisingly, pleasure. "So, you were the _aith-catuaman_ of the vessel. I wondered."

He was surprised when she gave him a quick bow and a small smile. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you knew. I was certain I didn't do anything to give away my position as heir apparent. What gave me away?"

He gave her a small shrug, before placing his long rifle on the armory table. "You were the only one that didn't have the stance of a crew or guard."

The asari blinked, before laughing softly. "Given away by my companions. That will take some training to get around. But thank you for the answer, I doubt others that might spot it would be so willing to give it away."

Arlas shrugged, before opening the long rifle, and pulling out the ammo block. He glared at it for a moment, before looking up at Lyla as she leaned forward, examining the long rifle. He could tell, from her emotions, she wasn't really interested in the rifle, but instead trying to make herself appear more appealing. "Can I help you with anything?"

She gave a soft laugh. "Yes, training but that would require more time than I have on this ship. I was actually wondering what your price was."

The Eldar paused, before turning slightly to look at her, actually giving her attention as he let a bit of scorn enter his voice. "Price. Sorry, I am not for sale."

She laughed at his response, before shaking her head. "I didn't mean like a slave or servant. I meant hire you as a teacher. Two of the asari you fought on the second day of the tournament were my teachers, and you didn't even bother drawing your weapon. Mother was… not amused, and is looking for replacements. I was thinking you fit the position rather nicely."

Arlas just stared at her waiting for the rest of the speech. When she simply tilted her head and waited, he replied with a raised eyebrow. "And I assume, considering your position, that you know of what I told your… Councilor?"

He didn't say what his personal thoughts on the councilors were, realizing it could only hurt his position, as the asari replied. "Of course, but surely by now you have seen enough to give your leaders a report. Wouldn't earning favor with the eldest, the diplomats, the most sophisticated, and, more importantly, the richest race be better than the favor of childish _mon-kiys_? Inventive, determined, tenacious, yes, but still childish."

He snorted in amusement. "I get in trouble when I call them _mon-keigh_ , why do you get away with it?"

She smiled. "For calling them 'not of the people?' Because it is true."

Arlas acknowledged her point with a nod after a second of staring at her before replying. "Your points are well made, but I am not here to make friends, that is the Seer Council's decision. I am simply here to note what threats are present. I doubt I would have learned about the geth or the batarians if I stayed with your people. So until my people show up, I will continue to wander. My gratitude for the offer though, and if I get the opportunity, I will keep your offer in my thoughts."

Lyla nodded and soon left, letting him get back to work. Arlas watched her leave however, his eyes hard and ignoring the rifle on the workstation in front of him. After the elevator door closed, he mentally reached out to Yol'Pvera. * _Yol, take a note. Priority assignment: figure out why and how the asari leader's child knows eldar terms._ *

 _A/N - Chapter divided to get updates out faster/on time and keep you from getting 10k+ word 'chapters.' And go vote on the current poll on my profile page. More votes, more incentive to keep writing. Just like more reviews, readers, favorites, follows, and everything else does._


	30. Intrigue and Consequences

**Chapter 28 - Intrigue and Consequences**

' _Not every inquisitor is a 'kick in the door and shoot you in the face' kind of inquisitor. Some of us prefer handing you a rope, and watching you hang yourself.' - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor_

Two days after Noveria, Arlas stood up from his meditations, controlling his frustration. All his scrying had revealed were fragments and those were the productive part of his last two days, other than repairing most of his equipment. He lacked the formal training of a Bonesinger to actually do more than just make field repairs, but he was ready for the next battle. The eldar just wished that visions were so easy to decipher.

 _A massive weight on his chest, as two voices screamed in mortal terror._

 _A sky filled with flames, a flash of white in a frozen cloud of brown, and the distant echo of hollow laughter._

 _A dirge, coming from a dozen voices behind him, in a room filled with flames, shadows and bodies._

 _A planet awash in flames, a massive crater, and a monster clad in hatred and arrogance, wielding a whip of insanity, driving a star before. A dozen smaller beings writhed behind the monster, dragged toward the burning planet by the falling star._

 _An ancient, massive wreck the size of a small planet, floating amongst the stars._

 _A powerful avian, wings spread and beak open, resting behind a battered, bleeding and snarling hound in shadows._

 _A lost soul, hiding on a destroyed ship from hunters that looked identical to them._

 _The vile symbol of Shi who Thirsts, broken and scorched, hanging between three small jewels on black velvet._

 _A female silhouette, wearing an ornate but battered and cracked crown, silently screaming in agony and despair in a far too small cage, while a second identical silhouette silently observed._

Arlas shook off his unease, before looking down. He found himself already in his armor, and grabbing his last weapon, his local long rifle, and made a note to add a proper eldar long rifle to his arsenal after he made Wrex's chain sword. Putting together a shuriken catapult from one of his wraithseeds had been child's play, though it was basic, only a massive supply of shuriken differentiated it from a normal catapult. He also had grabbed his fusion gun and flamer pistol, and his sword was already on his back.

The prototype local chainsword he had tried to craft for Wrex had refused to activate, as had the second, but the third through fifth had ripped themselves apart. He was fairly certain he knew what had gone wrong each time, and was reasonably certain he would have one completed for the krogan sooner rather than later. Which was just as well, Wrex had confronted him yesterday about it, and hadn't been amused.

Done arming up, he finished checking his armor, and made a note to either do full repairs to it as a priority to get his psy-shields back, or waive off the mission after the deep space research station that had gotten the images of the daemons.

He headed for the airlock, where most of the combat ready ground team was waiting, including Liara. Jaclyn was still on bed rest as per threats from Doctor Chakwas, or else she would put Jaclyn in an induced coma to keep her resting, and Tali was still unconscious. The doctor had tried to make Liara stay, but the asari maiden had countered that she had to be there for the confrontation, otherwise the matriarch could simply leave and not be challenged again. It was bad enough they had arrived nearly an hour behind her, she could easily be heading to her ship now to leave. Liara had countered that asari politics and legalities would keep her in place for hours, and that was if these 'lawyers' were being helpful. If they weren't, the process could take days.

The ship rocked slightly as it came to rest in its hangar, as Icivia and Joannis approached. "Alright, cabs are waiting just out of the dock for us, Icivia will have Garrus, Wrex, and Ashley with her, Icivia leads. Arlas, Liara, Kaidan, you three with me. It's a fifteen minute drive, and our guests will see themselves off as they are able."

Arlas turned to Icivia as everyone began filing in, and held out his hand. "I will take a biotic inhibitor."

Icivia gave him a death glare, before entering the decon room. "And why would I give you one?"

He ignored the others watching and listening. "Because as a teleporter, I am most likely to get it on Benezia without killing her first."

That made the turian pause, before pulling a pair of devices out of one of her belt pouches. "Push the button on the back, then place at the base of the neck. It will only work for a minute on a matriarch of her power before the device burns out, but that should be enough time for us to subdue her and get something that isn't disposable on her."

Liara gave him a quick smile as relief poured off of her, apparently taking comfort in his attempt at taking her mother alive. He didn't react to her, already sealed in his armor, and instead examined the devices he had been handed. It was unpainted metal and had three articulated prongs with some kind of suction device on the underside. At the end of each prong was a ring, and he could see a small needle in the end of each. He nodded to the turian spectre, before reaching up and grabbing a handrail from the ceiling.

A full minute after entry, the decon chamber opened, and the eight ground team moved to the waiting vehicles. As they entered the rented vehicles, Kaidan and Icivia's omnitools beeped, but the tech waited until the vehicle was moving before checking them. After a moment, Kaidan groaned, and connected his tool to the dash of the car, bringing up a view screen. It showed an asari standing behind a wall, with a bullet passing behind her every few seconds. "This is reporter Ophelmia Provola of Thessia News, reporting live from Athame Park, where Asari Republic royal troops have engaged in a pitched battle. The royal troops arrived in the park nearly a quarter hour ago, and began evacuating the area and setting up defenses, and refused to answer any questions as to their purposes. Less than a two minutes ago, a group of asari entered the park from the south entrance, making their way toward the primary Temple of Athame. We have no idea who they were or what their goals were, but the commander of the royal troops ordered them to stand down, lay down their arms, and surrender. Instead, the group attacked. The royal troops are holding firm, but are clearly being pushed…"

Arlas sighed as the camera swung around to show the park, and a group of asari in black leathers fighting a larger group of asari in gold and red leathers with actual plating on them. While the gold and red plating side outnumbered the black leathers, the leathers were relentless, and didn't break or even flinch even as two of their own went down silently. The eldar could see the red and golds losing momentum even as the blacks lost numbers, shifting backwards, and then suddenly a second group of black leather clad asari came out of the alley on their right flank, already firing as they advanced. Arlas frowned as he watched, he had studied military tactics extensively in his 'free' time, and what he was seeing was concerning.

The red and golds gave ground, refusing to hold the line, one of them already talking into an omnitool, the others covering each other, moving quickly and erratically, and while a couple had been hit, none had died. The wounded were still fighting and moving, covering their sisters with fire and biotics, and retreating as best they can. But the black leather group had already lost seven, now nine, and fought like he knew the geth did. He doubted anyone else caught the mechanical movements, how each black leather picked a target and fired until they couldn't target them, before moving to the next target. How each black leather moved in the fastest line at a dead sprint, no change of speed or direction unless the cover was destroyed before they got to it. It was nothing like how the asari were supposed to fight.

Arlas sighed in the privacy of his helm as the screen clicked off, before Joannis turned to Liara. "Liara, did you see your mother in the feed? And who were those 'royal troops?'"

"Yes, she was with a third group, waiting near the entrance to the park while the first groups cleared the area. As for the royal troops, those are asari that have pledged themselves to the Empress and her family. Right now, that is just her eldest daughter, Lyleeria V'Zaeva, but in a half century her youngest daughter will also be publicly announced and granted her command from it. Those are some of the best asari troops in existence, and have the best training and equipment."

Arlas snorted. "And yet they are giving ground to half again their number."

Icivia cut in over the communicator before they could descend further into the argument. "We are five minutes out, and the Royal Troops are calling for help. Any idea why they were there in the first place?"

Joannis shrugged. "Could be one of our guests called ahead, and notified the royal family of Benezia's arrival. But that is nowhere near the law firm Benezia should be heading towards, right Liara?"

"Correct, the law firm is on the east side of the city, while the park is nearly in the center."

Arlas leaned back in the back seat, getting comfortable as he stopped listening to the conversation. They would figure out what the asari target was thinking when they captured her, or they could keep guessing after she had died. Either way, the Eldar wasn't concerned. He did returning to the conversation as Joannis spoke. "Alright, two minutes from the park. Local reports show Benezia advancing north toward the main temple of Athame in the city, so we will set up about a minute ahead of her on the north side of the park. I have coordinated with the local troops that attempted to bar her way, and they will be providing support after they regroup, more are en route; they were expecting Benezia to be on her own, not having troops, so were equipped to resist biotics, not bullets, according to the local officer. Arlas, you are on the flanks, stir them around and keep them from focusing, but be ready to assist if they do a suicide push. Liara, you said you have to directly challenge her, so front and center, but be smart about it. Garrus..."

Arlas stopped actively listening again, as he had his assignment. No one spoke to him during the rest of the trip, so he came out of his meditations as the aircar suddenly banked and slowed. A moment later the vehicle came to a halt, and the others began climbing out. Arlas jumped out, and looked around, taking in the soaring buildings, and abundant plant life, before humming softly to himself. "Apparently the asari are more aware of aesthetics than I anticipated."

He cursed silently to himself as the three mon-keigh turned toward him, not aware he had been speaking out loud. Joannis had a mischievous grin on her face, and he moved to quickly cut it off. "At least compared to the humans. Focus mon-keigh. I am going up to snipe."

The eldar pathfinder fired his integrated grappling hook into a nearby building, pulling himself up before activating his jump jets. It took less than half a minute to scale the small building, only a hundred meters tall, where he activated his cloak before getting out his long rifle. A quick examination of the building showed no real cover at the edge, so he simply picked a spot before sighting in the rifle. A quick sweep showed the group setting up at the top of the ramp leading to the temple, a handful of the gold and red leather asari falling in with them and Liara right in the middle of the ramp, standing tall even though he could see signs of pain in her posture.

Done checking his team, though he couldn't stop himself from snorting in amusement at using that term to include mon-keigh, he turned back to the park, and quickly counted the number of black leathers approaching, but froze when he saw Benezia for the first time in person. It had to be her, wearing a form fitting black dress, a few black strips of hardened cloth on her forehead giving her the impression of a crown. But she was so… gaunt, like she had been starved. She looked more like a skeleton with skin or an asari version of death itself than the mother Liara had often talked about before she had learned that Benezia was working with Saren. He shuddered, before suddenly frowning. He had seen far worse in his wanderings than this, so why had his mind revolted against further examination of the target? The only times it had done that before was when the target had stronger psyker potential than him, or the one time he had encountered a necron lord.

Pushing the mystery aside, he activated his communicator on the squad channel, idly noting the new name on the list; likely the asari commander. "Joannis, Arlas, forty three black leather asari approaching, Benezia sighted at rear. Permission to engage?"

The human turned to Liara, and conversed as the hostiles approached. "Negative Arlas, Liara has to initiate this fight, otherwise Saren might be able to keep his mitts on the funds. And remember, we are trying to take Benezia alive. The guards are a non priority, but we would like a few for questioning. Wait for Benezia to start flinging biotics, Liara won't, then light up the blacks. Remember, your job is to keep them from focusing us down. They are heading for the temple behind us, so we can't move."

He hummed a few bars in the eldar language, before remembering that the mon-keigh didn't know it. "Orders received."

Arlas grumbled to himself, speaking eldar to a mon-keigh, he was starting to go native. And after only six months? Something was wrong with him, it couldn't just be the lack of background psy-noise. And it had really only started on Feros. He dismissed the thought as gun fire suddenly broke the silence. His head snapped back to his scope, spotting the three leading black leathers firing at Liara. A hasty barrier from Joannis ensured the asari got into cover, as more of the black leathers took cover and began firing at the others.

He could hear Liara calling something to Benezia, but he was focused on his long rifle, sighting the furthest black leather from him, and removing her head with a squeeze of the trigger. He smirked as the upgrades Tali and Garrus had installed did their work, an extended, high velocity barrel, armor piercing kinetic coils, and a tracking, high magnification and multi-spectrum scope, on top of the phasic ammo, all combined to ensure the asari hadn't even realized she was in danger before she was dead. The only problem with the rifle was that it couldn't fire more than once every three and three quarter seconds, which was an eternity for an eldar sniper.

By the time he had fired his third shot, he knew the situation was bad. Benezia had spouted some garbage about being a mother and being more strict with her daughter, and the black leathers were pressing. Two of the local supporting asari were dead already, but another four of the six remaining were badly wounded, in spite of killing eight of the black leather asari. The black leathers were simply bombarding the terrace the group was using as cover with biotics, firing their assault rifles when they weren't flinging biotics. Liara, Kaidan, and Joannis were blocking what they could with their barriers, but there were just so many opponents.

Cursing, Arlas fired his fourth shot, this time managing to kill one asari and hit another as the bullet over penetrated, before folding the rifle onto his back and drawing his fusion gun and sword. He set himself, and then warp jumped, performing a _zha'til_ counter charge, landing right in the middle of three asari rebels. His sword slashed twice, and the fusion gun screamed once, before he sprinted for the nearest pillar. He performed two flips to dodge a burst of fire, before sliding behind the pillar. Out of sight, Arlas jumped again, firing his fusion gun as he landed, a technique perfected during the skirmishes with the _densorin_ , vanguards leaping behind turrets to decimate their operators, opening the way for the follow up troops to push in.

Arlas froze, at the sudden realization he didn't know that word, but a sudden biotic push staggered him, bringing his mind back to the fight. He jumped again, avoiding several biotic attacks, and mentally kicked himself as he landed in cover. _Figure out what is wrong with you later, fight now._

He stayed behind the pillar for a couple seconds longer than necessary, letting the asari waste bullets and attacks on an attacker that didn't materialize, and let his allies reacquire the initiative. Wrex's charge in particular was effective at getting attention, as he had killed one asari on impact with the biotic charge, and then used a second one as a flail at the four nearest, cackling madly. Garrus was sniping with his long rifle, Icivia was throwing disposable turrets and tech attacks with abandon, and Liara had finally gotten her mother's attention by starting a biotic duel with her. The others were attacking the black leathers, but even with half their number dead and climbing, they still didn't break, didn't falter; by the Warp, the eldar wasn't even sure if they had blinked.

Another asari died, and the other simply shifted, solidifying Arlas' suspicion that something else was going on here. These weren't fanatics, these asari were acting more like they were suffering from some sort of mind control, admittedly more subtle than any he had ever heard of. Done analyzing the situation, he warp jumped above the asari, only a hundred meters, and pulled his long rifle out again, hovering on the jump jets as he fired down at them.

He watched Liara stagger as Benezia hit her with a powerful lift, but used her own biotics to counter it, and then deflect a warp with a barrier. Benezia's singularity was countered with a warp, detonating it early, before she froze, succumbing to a stasis attack.

Arlas swore as his brain sped up, realizing what Benezia would do next. Singularity right on top of Liara, and then detonate it when Liara came out of it, shredding the young asari. She would be dead before she could counter it or even understand what had happened. He slammed his rifle onto his back as he drew his sword, checking to see if the others were able to do anything. None of them seemed to have noticed the threat to Liara, too busy engaging the black leather asari, or in Kaidan's case performing first aid to save the gold and red armored asari who were still alive.

Seeing no one else in position to prevent disaster was no surprise to the Eldar, so he simply warped in behind Benezia, his free hand diving into a pouch for one of the biotic inhibitors. "Asari, your..."

Arlas actually yelped in shock as he warp jumped to avoid a high speed biotic warp, not expecting a walking corpse to move so quickly. She hadn't participated or even reacted to the battle, and her attacks against Liara had goaded him into a false sense of superiority, believing he could easily dodge her attacks. Even with his reactions, she had nearly taken his head off. Landing safely, and now more aware of her speed, he tried again. "That was…"

He dodged what looked like a throw orb, landing back where she nearly warped his head off. "Must you…"

Another dodge as a singularity bloomed next to him, nearly yanking him off his feet. "Can I…"

This time the asari matriarch screamed, energy blasting outward in a crackling sphere, throwing him nearly ten meters before he managed to land on his feet. He recognized it as a nova attack, the signature attack of the other twin. Arlas was grateful his psy-shields were working again, though they were somewhat unreliable. "Are you done yet?"

Benezia turned and dropped another singularity behind her, bracketing her back with the previous one, preventing him from easily getting behind her. "This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light, and everything is clear!"

Arlas didn't respond, simply shifting toward the side covered with the new singularity. The other singularity from her fight with Liara was still going, approaching the two minute mark. But even as he checked on it, the singularity near the stasised Liara collapsed with a loud bang, making him note the time, even as he resisted the urge to check on the friendly asari. _Almost one hundred thirty seconds exactly. That has me impressed, for an ability a non-psyker used._

Instead, he spoke, delaying the asari. "Sounds like you are trying to convince yourself rather than me. Though I must say, you are quite surprising. I didn't expect someone to strike their own daughter with such intent to kill, especially considering how highly she spoke of you."

The older asari's face sneered at him. "I will not be moved by sympathy, no matter who you mention or bring into this fight. I do what must be done."

He took a subtle step back, his opponent matching his step, pulling her out of the safety of her two singularities. _Have to time this just right. Immediately after the singularity detonates, jump, land, attach inhibitor, beat unconscious. Not subtle, but I don't do subtle._

"You say that like I haven't heard it before, countless times. I stopped them, just like I will you, and then go on to stop Saren."

Arlas couldn't hear fighting anymore, but the others weren't intruding, giving him the ability to stall her. He didn't check on his allies however, keeping his focus on his opponent. Therefore, he was ready to act as she suddenly staggered forward two steps, giving him enough room to jump behind her. He landed as her head came up. "Wait, you must…"

He didn't hesitate, placing the biotic inhibitor on her neck even as she tried to turn toward him. She paused, her entire body suddenly stiffening as her back arched. He jumped away before the oldest singularity detonated, and could see she was crying, her mouth opened in a silent scream of agony, eyes rolled back into her head as she jerked, as if having convulsions. He reached out with his left hand, grabbing her shoulder, his right hand raising to strike her on the temple with his sword hilt, hopefully rendering her unconscious.

As soon as his left hand touched her shoulder, though, he jerked back, releasing her shoulder with a startled oath. He hadn't been shielding his mind when he had touched her, not believing he would need it, and had learned a few things as their minds unexpectedly touched. First was that the asari matriarch had minor psyker potential. Not a significant talent, but enough that the wraithbone prosthetic arm had reacted to her. Second, her mind was… difficult to describe, but it felt like her mind was encased, or maybe submerged, in a thin, greasy liquid. Third, was that the 'biotic' inhibitor was affecting the 'liquid' in her mind, causing it to feedback onto itself, which caused the convulsions.

Arlas hesitated.

He finally screamed a curse in his own head, before activating the omnitool and loading an overload program with a practiced movement of his hand. Arlas didn't fire it, instead slapping the omnitool beside Benezia's head, and discharged it directly into her, causing her convulsions to stop and her to collapse. He quickly caught her before plucking the sparking and hissing biotic inhibitor off the back of her neck. He hissed in pain as electricity arced to him, before flicking the broken inhibitor aside with all the haste he could muster. He shook the residual electricity from his hand as he hauled Benezia up onto his shoulder, before glancing back at the mon-keigh. "I thought you wanted her alive for questioning?"

Joannis shook her head, before turning to Icivia. "Icivia, get Liara, Arlas, and Benezia back to the ship. Tell Chakwas to keep her sedated until we know why she went into convulsions from the inhibitor."

* * *

Arlas glanced at the eldar and her guardian, the gyrinx staring back at him as the female eldar shifted. Liara however was oblivious to his interest. "Doctor Chakwas, what can you tell me about... my mother? Why she... had convulsions?"

The human sighed, before shaking her head. "I have done scans, but…"

Chakwas glanced at the datapad in her hand, before tapping it to bring up an overlay over the asari on the third bed of the medbay. She glanced at Icivia and then Arlas, but at Liara's insistent gesture continued. "She is suffering from severe malnutrition and moderate dehydration. She also has several healing bone fractures to both arms and legs, multiple contusions and lacerations in various states of healing on both arms, legs, chest, neck, and face."

Chakwas paused, looking at Arlas and Icivia, before gesturing to the door. "I would like to talk to Liara alone about the further injuries her mother has."

Neither of them moved to leave. Icivia spoke first, mandibles spread and her head shaking. "Absolutely not. Until she is in a biotic inhibitor collar and cuffs, I am not leaving her in here without at least three guards. Once the guards finish converting one of the smaller rooms to a cell, she will be moved in there and kept in isolation until we finish interrogating her, and the judicial courts decide which race gets to press charges."

Arlas simple glanced back at the table with his kins-woman. "She will be waking up soon, and you do not desire an eldar bonded to a gyrinx to waken without at least one other eldar to inform them as to why they are on a mon-keigh ship."

His statement made all three women glance at the far examination table, only to see the gyrinx calmly returning their stares. Liara shook her head and recovered first. "Doctor, please continue."

Doctor Chakwas sighed, before nodding. "Your mother also appears to have been beaten and raped several times from her wounds, and judging from the damage my scans showed, it was not a recent development."

Liara's face paled, her expression shocked, but Icivia's tone was disbelieving. "You mean to tell me someone, probably Saren, managed to rape an asari matriarch repeatedly, and didn't get slapped with a singularity and then warped into their next life? I find that… hard to believe."

Arlas rolled his eyes. "You can discuss and argue about her willingness to submit later. Have you discovered why she reacted as she did to the inhibitor?"

Doctor Chakwas quickly reminded him of the old adage of why one never angered a healer when she glared at him, but answered anyway. "No, but I could find no biological reason for the inhibitor to malfunction like that."

Arlas hummed, before turning back to the unconscious asari. "When I touched her, I sensed something in her mind. Something I have never encountered before and unnatural."

That caused the conversation to pause, as Chakwas did a quick scan with some of the tech attached to the medical bed. As it finished, she frowned. "Despite being unconscious, she is also showing extensive beta and gamma brainwave activity. Which is very unusual as she should be mostly delta waves, with some theta waves, and a spike of an alpha wave once every couple of minutes. There is definitely something going on here."

Arlas frowned, but before he could respond he felt a mental groan. He sighed, before turning and striding over to the table with the eldar, only to get pushed back by the gyrinx's psyker powers, while the gyrinx dropped into a combat stance and hissed at him. He gave the gyrinx a flat stare, before stopping next to the medical bed, only to get shoved away again. *( _Stop that before you annoy me._ )*

Arlas was mildly thankful the other eldar regained awareness before he lost another exchange with the gyrinx. He could feel Icivia's eyes on his back, sliding to the gyrinx and back, and could hear his credibility plummeting. The eldar woman brought her hand up to her forehead, before pushing herself upright. She gasped in pain, one hand going to her forehead, before her mind reached out, sensing her surroundings.

Arlas quickly brushed his mind against hers, greeting his fellow eldar mentally. * _Greetings, I am pathfinder Arlas of craftworld Ae'Imedra. You are on a mon-keigh vessel, of several different species. So please refrain from abrupt actions. And please tell the gyrinx to stand down, before it damages my credibility even more._ *

He shot the gyrinx a glare and a thought of disdain, only to get it returned. He felt a surge of amusement from the female, and waited for her to reply. It took a moment for her, and the weakness of the mental voice made it clear she was still recovering from the improper awakening from the cryostasis. * _I am Quel'Nayrae... bonesinger… of craftworld… Ae'Imedra. This is Prarmer... my friend and guardian._ *

Arlas took a step forward, only to get pushed back by the gyrinx again. *( _What is your ancestors be damned problem, Prarmer?_ )*

He would admit it was less than diplomatic, but he let his frustration with everything seep into his thoughts. It showed less than perfect control, and would likely hurt Quel'Nayrae's trust in him, but it made him feel better. He did not expect a mental spike of pure hostility from the gyrinx in return however. Both eldar turned to the gyrinx in surprise, but a brief mental conversation between Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer caused the gyrinx to stand down, though he still glared at Arlas. It was surprisingly effective, considering the glare was coming from a meter long ball of brown fur and green slit eyes with red ears and white stripes on his sides.

The glare only got harder as Arlas noted the gyrinx's appearance, but the Quel'Nayrae sent ripples of amusement, before reaching an arm out. He helped her to her feet, only to catch her as her legs abruptly buckled. He mentally waved off a feeling of thanks tinged with embarrassment, before carefully slipping his arm around her chest. Such contact would be unseemly back at the craftworld, but falling in front of mon-keigh was even less so. But then Quel'Nayrae glanced at the asari unconscious on the third bed, and she mentally gagged. *( _By Khaine, what is wrong with her?_ )*

Arlas sent a mental shrug in reply. *( _I do not know, but that is why I want you out of here. I have a lander below, you can use the personal room. I will move my things into the armory._ )*

She gave him a feeling of surprise, before letting him help her out of the medbay. Once they were in the elevator, she opened her mind to converse, only to stop when he sent back caution. He knew she had questions, but right now he did not have time. He gave her a brief over what had happened, starting from him extracting her stasis pod, until now, which got them to the hangar bay. As the elevator finally got to the bottom, she asked her first question since leaving the medical bay. *( _Why are their lifts so slow?_ )*

Arlas snorted in amusement, before letting her walk to the lander, her strength recovering as she had moved about. *( _When I get a straight answer, I will let you know._ )*

Her surprised laughter echoed through the nearly empty hangar, only three humans in it to hear, but judging by how their heads snapped around, they hadn't heard anything quite like it. And judging by how all three of them stared, they had never seen one like Quel'Nayrae before. Arlas shot them a glare, as Prarmer gathered psyker energies to give himself a visible aura, quickly convincing the humans to return to their business. After convincing the mon-keigh to get back to work, he turned back to the lander, where Quel'Nayrae was examining the unique vehicle already.

She was clad in the simple black body suits all Eldar wore outside the craftworld, clinging to her lithe, athletic form. Her void black hair was longer than his own, reaching down to mid thigh and done in a single, elaborate, eye catchingly elegant braid. Her pale emerald eyes were examining the minor damages done by the geth on Noveria, which he still hadn't had time to fix. She was simply… Eldar, grace and elegance in a perfect package, like all Eldar were.

He forced himself to focus as he realized his thoughts were turning caustic, before realizing the gyrinx was glaring at him again. He sent back his distaste to the gyrinx, before heading up the ramp to strip out of his armor, change into a tabard, remove his personal effects from the cabin and place them in a storage container in the armory. He took only a couple minutes to complete his tasks, before moving his few personal possessions, a trio of pictures, a pair of small memory crystals, and a handful of other objects in a storage container into the armory. He then set up a small section for him to rest and recover in, before putting his pistol on his hip and his sword on his back.

Arlas then introduced Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer to Kap'Eiyl and Yol'Pvera, the first and third quickly moving to a private conversation, having known each other before Kap'Eiyl had died. Prarmer simply moved into the cabin, and curled up on the bed. Yol'Pvera didn't do more than simply greet Quel'Nayrae, before turning her focus back to her vessel. Realizing he was done assisting Quel'Nayrae with what he could, he headed for the hangar fabricator to work on making a working chainsword for Wrex.

* * *

Two and a half days later, Arlas stepped into the CiC of the _Normandy_ with the air of a man about to kill something. He looked around before spotting Joannis at one of the terminals before making his way over to her. "Please tell me we are there."

Joannis glanced up with amused curiosity, but answered anyway. "About a minute out, actually. I was going to contact you after we oriented and contacted the security frigate in the system. Sensing something wrong?"

He shook his head, not bothering to inform her about purely Eldar matters. His recent falling out with the bonesinger due to his inability to maintain his equipment to bonesinger standards was not a concern for a human. He glanced at the cockpit, before heading to the nearest wall to wait. He was in his pathfinder carapace armor, the rune armor he had been using had been confiscated by the bonesinger for repairs, hence their current falling out. Arlas was dreading her reaction once she finally noticed the wreckage of the Vyper in the corner of the hangar, broken but no longer slowly degrading back to warp energies.

As he contemplated her reaction, the Normandy lurched as it dropped out of FTL. The mon-keigh still didn't appear to notice it, and Arlas was long since acclimated to it, but a sudden psionic curse made him smile slightly. Quel'Nayrae had survived her second FTL deceleration just fine.

"SAS Orleans, this is SAS Normandy, please respond. Security code Zulu-Epsilon-Seven Niner-Zero-Alpha Alpha-Gold-Eight-Yankee."

He glanced at Joannis, standing at the podium above the hologram that currently displayed their location, a star system with only three stars in it. The rest of the light display was empty, making his paranoia kick into overtime; thoughts of betrayal flashing through his mind.

"SAS Orleans, this SAS Normandy. Please respond."

Or maybe not, the human was sounding confused, not a good sign. She had waited a minute between sending the security code and the second hail, and now looked to be trying for a third time. "SAS Orleans, respond immediately. This is SAS Normandy, sending Spectre and Systems Alliance authentication codes."

Silence echoed through the CiC, before she turned to one of the humans at a station. "Serviceman Douglas, fire up the sensors, I want to know why they aren't responding."

Arlas actually grimaced at the order, before mentally reaching out to Quel'Nayrae and the two spirit stones. * _Humans are about to be noisy, protect your psy-hearing._ *

He barely finished the warning when his world suddenly rocked, not-light and noise blaring in his head for an eternity. A glance at the clock as it ended showed it had been less than a second in real time, but he could hear someone mentally snarling in shock and anger. * _Oh, right, warn the gyrinx please._ *

He ignored the mental snarl from the gyrinx, the amusement from Kap'Eiyl, and the disbelief from Quel'Nayrae and Yol'Pvera, turning to the humans. * _Kap'Eiyl, we got the wraithguard repaired. Mount up and bring the shuriken cannon. We are hunting possible mon-keigh chaos cultists._ *

Kap'Eiyl sent a feeling of agreement and vicious glee. * _Not feeling any taint, but best to be ready. Planning on taking the lander across? And how many of the mon-keigh?_ *

* _Yes, and the twins only. Hate to have to shoot more than I have to._ *

He glanced over at the star system display, which was now showing two more contacts in between the three stars, a binary star with the third orbiting them. One was labeled as space station Houska, and the other was labeled as SAS Orleans, but had a question mark after it. After a moment of examining the map, Joannis spoke. "Full stealth mode, Joker, bring us around on an oblique path, we should have more than enough time to get in close before the sinks need to discharge."

One of the sensor techs spoke up. "Ma'am, not picking up any active pings in the system."

Arlas frowned behind his helmet, as Joannis spoke. "None? Right, Joker, microjump us closer."

The Eldar watched as the icon for the ship pulse, displaying a second icon a 'short' ways from the station, at least in stellar terms. The destination was still a couple light minutes from the station, if the scale was correct. He didn't bother warning Quel'Nayrae about the jump, it was only a couple seconds long, and was rewarded with a second curse, followed quickly by an even viler curse when they reverted before she could correct herself, falling over.

Arlas didn't reply too busy turning to Joannis after seeing what the scanners picked up. "No recordings. At all. I will enforce that."

He turned back to the sensor station, showing the frigate, its symbol of alliance to the local humans defaced by an eight pointed star with a skull in the center. The Eldar glanced back at Joannis. "Destroy that thing. Now."

The entire crew turned to him, shocked, but he kept his gaze on the Lioness. After a moment, she glanced at the sensor technician. "Anything from the Orleans?"

The human female shook her head, and reviewed the data, before gasping. "Ma'am, the other side of the ship is gone."

"...What?"

"A directed scan is showing that the far side of the Orleans is gone. Can't tell for sure from this side, but it looks like it is melted. Not detecting any active power sources, life signs, or even heat sources above standard background. It has been completely dead at least a day, judging from the scans."

They were above and to the right of the desecrated ship, approaching the station. Arlas glanced at the scan as the ship moved around the hulk before stiffening. Globs of armor had congealed near the ship, but the sensor tech was correct in that the hull had been melted in a way Arlas was familiar with, both from boarding ships with that kind of damage and surviving his own vessel being hit.

A plasma attack had destroyed that ship.

Arlas glanced at the human commander. "We will take my lander across. You, your sister, myself, and the walker. And no recordings. At all. I leave in five minutes."

Arlas took the stairs down to the mess hall, then the elevator to the hangar. While descending, he reached out to the others. * _Yol'Pvera, prepare to sortie. We obliterate the chaos heavy bomber, then board the station._ *

Quel'Nayrae sent her own question. * _I presume you require my assistance?_ *

* _Absolutely not. This is a scouting mission into a chaos infested space station. A bonesinger would be required if we planned to do anything other than blow it out of the Void at the end. We run into anything a wraithguard and a pathfinder can't deal with, we aren't going to have time for you to build a turret. The two mon-keigh are coming to see what their Khaine be damned ignorance has wrought, otherwise I would have Yol'Pvera sortie long enough to purge both targets. I want them to see the cultists and whatever they have summoned._ *

He kept his mind clear of any censure, she was asking a question and he was correcting her assumption. He politely ignored the thread of relief she allowed, as well as how the gyrinx's mind relaxed when he understood his partner wasn't going into the fray. He stepped out of the elevator and strode to the armory, stopping only long enough to grab his geth long rifle, his shuriken catapult, the fusion gun, and a handful of grenades. This wasn't going to be a long fight, just enough to get the Twins to understand why he had reacted as he had.

Quel'Nayrae retreated to the armory, avoiding the humans 'polluting' the troop bay, though he could hear her thinking about cleansing it to get the mon-keigh traces out. He let the twins get seated, before having Yol'Pvera fly the lander to the station, diverting enough to fire the Pulsar at the derelict local chaos frigate. * _I refuse to call that thing a frigate. It is barely armored, completely lacking and weapons, and I suspect a single Nightwing fighter could kill a squad of them with ease. Those are, at most, bombers, and at worst targets._ *

He ignored the outcries from the humans in the bay at the casual destruction of the frigate, and chuckled back at Yol'Pvera. * _I agree, but let them have their delusions. Once the craftworld and its fleets arrive, they will learn how pathetically under-powered they are. Though running them down will take some doing. It will be good for the fleet, bunch of lazy…_ *

Yol'Pvera twisted the wraithbone below him, knocking him out of mental alignment with her to stop his comment. * _I was with the fleet before becoming a builder._ *

Her tone shifts to professional, including the troop bay which now has Kap'Eiyl as well as the humans. * _Landing in one minute. Target is the main bay. Prepare to repel local defenses._ *

Arlas made his way back to the troop bay, letting Yol'Pvera bring the lander in. "Expected hostiles are daemons and cultists. First out is Kap'Eiyl, he has a wraithcannon, so stay behind him. You get sucked into another dimension, I am not going hunting for you. I will be rearguard. Twins, left and right flanks. I strongly suggest shooting everything that moves, but I doubt you two will listen."

Joannis gave him a flat look. "We are here to save lives, not mindlessly kill everything. And we will be talking later about you obliterating System Alliance property without waiting for authorization."

Arlas simply gave her the briefest of glances, his helmet hiding his expression. "And I am saving souls. Infinitely more important."

The lander shuddered as it came to rest, and Yol'Pvera interrupted the argument. * _The station hangar lacks atmosphere, so sealed armor will be required._ *

Arlas snorted, before checking his armor to ensure he had sealed it. He had, but he had learned the benefits of checking one last time to be sure. The Twins put on their helmets, their visors already integrated into the modular helms. Kap'Eiyl just sent his amusement. Once everyone had reported sealed armors Arlas opened the bay door, and let the wraithguard stride into the hangar.

After a few seconds of nothing happening, Arlas nudged Jaclyn's shoulder. "One of you two were next."

The Twins shot him a glare, before they both stalked out of the lander. He waited a second before following them out, his long rifle sweeping the hangar. The only thing in the hangar other than the group and the lander was the wreckage of a shuttle in a painted circle, and three other empty circles. "Joannis, how many shuttles should this station have?"

He got a shrug in reply, but heard her open the communicator back to the ship. "Lieutenant Pressley, check the records for the station, see how many shuttles they should have. Let us know when we get back."

Arlas nodded, before following Kap'Eiyl through the open airlock at the back of the hangar, letting the twins drop back to rearguard position, clearly unnerved by either the situation or the location.

Truth be told, Arlas was getting unnerved as well.

The station was dead and empty. No lights, no air, no power, nothing. There were a few spots where bulkheads had been deployed but something had melted through them, causing them to run and congeal into polished, uneven puddles of metal. A couple of the rooms had been coated in soot, like something had burned through the room with a flamethrower thoroughly enough to prevent him from discerning what had been burned. Even the walls were covered in it, indicating someone had been extremely methodical and thorough in their cleansing of this place.

It wasn't until they got to the heart of the station that Arlas found anything intact enough to identify. KAp'Eiyl stepped in first, and did a quick sweep of the room, before turning back to Arlas. * _Nothing alive._ *

Arlas sent his understanding, before stepping into the center, and cursing loudly. A mostly melted device was sitting proudly in the center of the room, and everything else was even less recognizable. Arlas recognized the device, however, having used a couple of them on his last mission before coming to through the Abandoned Webgate. It was a powerful melta bomb, meant to destroy everything within the blast radius, though on his last mission he had mixed a few regular bombs in for variety and to spread the debris. A quick glance around made him mental snarl in frustration, though he was surprised as Quel'Nayrae responded to his mental cry first. * _What is going on over there?_ *

Arlas simply glanced at the extremely distinctive holes in the walls, ones he had seen dozens of times before in his life, as well as slightly smaller holes that were far more common. He glanced back at the melted bulkhead, and the hallway lined with soot, before shaking his head. He broadcast his thoughts out, but didn't include the two humans. * _They used flamethrowers, what looks like a plasma cannon for the bulkheads, a heavy bolter, and several bolters. We were beaten here by what appears to be an Astartes Squad._ *

 _A/N - Next week the current poll closes, and the most anticipated and shocking moment of Mass Effect goes to the poll. You veteran players know what I am referring to._

 _And if anyone is curious as to what the long rifle Arlas uses is, it is a prototype of the geth Javelin from ME3, with four mods and an extra ammo mod. Yes, it breaks the game rules, and no, I don't care that it does. In war, the side that makes the second to last mistake wins, and that is the only rule. So if a character can fit eight mods on a weapon in the story, they can do it. Though you have no idea how strong the urge was to make the maximum range of the long rifle 400 meters (same as it was in Mass Effect; as an infiltrator, I KNEW the arbitrary range limit, and cursed it several times), and have Arlas make snide comments._


	31. Competing Factions

**Chapter 29 - Competing Factions**

 _ **A/N -**_ _Eldar 'speech' will be using all three speech indicators, like so "(*This is eldar speech.*)" This is mostly because the Eldar are not going to be teaching their language to anyone, so everyone else will not understand it. Yet._

 _As a reminder, the current speech/communication indicators and what they mean: "_ speech" _| *mental speech/thoughts* | (_ nonverbal communications _)_ | {untranslated} | "(*Eldar language*)" |

 _Update 1: A reviewer point out I lost a plot thread, so adding a new section and reposting to tie off that plot._

 _Update 2: Fixed a lore problem, a couple punctuation errors, and some typos . Hopefully this is the last time I have to repost this chapter._

' _I came to save the faithful. A pity all I found were heretics, mutants, and xenos.' - Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor_

Joannis turned her attention to Arlas, who was sitting at the back of the bay as they headed back to the _Normandy_ , as far from the twins as he could. Considering he had ordered them back to the bay after they had gotten to the central room, letting them see only scorch marks and grenade blasts. Jaclyn had finally stopped cursing Arlas and whoever had beaten them there, letting her speak. "So, did you show us what you wanted?

She hated how he would barely acknowledge whoever he was talking to at times, but the moments where she realized he was fully focused on her were infinitely worse. It was like staring down an enraged Mindior stone bear. "No."

Jaclyn's cursing took on a new vigor, making her look back to see the station dissolving in fire, before a bright white beam lanced into the explosion, making it even bigger. Joannis turned back to the eldar, glaring at him. "Was that necessary?"

"Consider it the price of correcting your mistake."

"Are we going to get an explanation as to why you reacted as you did?"

"No. Ignorance is the only defense against it, and even knowledge of it can corrupt. You didn't listen to my first warning on the Guided Wrath, this station died. And with one shuttle missing, we can only hope the next thing to die isn't a planet."

* * *

"All hands, this is the captain speaking, we will arriving at the Citadel in fifteen minutes."

Arlas ignored the rest of the message, focusing on Quel'Nayrae. *( _And that is what has occurred since your host left._ )*

He had been giving her a history lesson, as well as a summary of his mission so far, trying to convince the newest Eldar he was not fallen. She had been less than pleased when Arlas had greeted Tali coming out of the elevator to resume her duties after finally being released from medical, so the pathfinder had given the bonesinger a full debrief. Now he waited as the bonesinger absorbed everything. All the victories and defeats, the alliances and betrayals, the desperate gambles that succeeded and the assured tactics that failed, all of it that he knew. Neither bothered to react to the ship rocking slightly as the Normandy docked.

She had quietly listened to the whole history, one hand idly stroking Prarmer as she considered everything he had said. Her musings were interrupted after a short while by the sound of Arlas' omnitool pinging, and both Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer gave him a flat stare. Arlas sighed, before activating the omnitool. "Lioness, if the ship is not about to explode…"

"We need you to come with us to convince the Council to let us hold onto Matriarch Benezia longer. We announced it a quarter an hour ago."

Both eldar and the gyrinx stared at the omnitool, then at Arlas as he broadcast his exasperation before replying. "That is unfortunate. Perhaps if I had been informed ahead of time, I would not be doing something else."

He closed the communicator program, then disconnected the omnitool from the network, before standing and heading for the troop bay. He answered the spike of curiosity from the other eldar. *( _To build something with their materials. I will be in the bay to not disturb you._ )*

Arlas stepped out of the armory and took a seat in the troop bay. He flipped open the omnitool and began working on a weapon design, but had barely started when someone began pounding at the bay door. Yol'Pvera contacted him. * _Angry mon'keigh at the bay door. Again._ *

Arlas sent his exasperation, before mentally twisting the wraithbone near him to open the door. He didn't bother looking up from his omnitool. "Lynx."

The angrier twin was glaring at him from the bottom of the ramp, arms resting behind her in the 'warrior neutral' body position, but rather than in her normal armor, she was wearing a stiff outfit, dark blue with gold highlights. A floppy hat sat on her head, too small to provide protection from either the elements or bullets. After a few seconds she spoke. "Is there a reason you aren't coming to try and convince the councilors and the human ambassador that Benezia would be better off with us? Other than sheer pique at not being notified sooner?"

He mentally applauded the angry human, she was learning to control her temper. "Because your leaders will be even less likely to listen to me than you. I see no reason to waste my time."

Lynx blinked, opening her mouth twice before finding her voice again. "You were actually in Benezia's head, you could tell them what you experienced…"

Arlas finally looked up from his omnitool to give her a flat stare. "I would need to use words your languages don't have to describe a sense none of the races other than mine have. Of course they will believe me."

Jaclyn was being dense today, and not giving up easily. "But your presence would…"

"Encourage them to be diplomatic and waste more time. They already have made their decisions, my presence will not change their decision."

"Do you think you could at least help Benezia though?"

The question made Arlas snap his omnitool off, before standing to glare at the impudent human. "Do you have any idea what you are asking? I did not complete the basic training of the warlock, and you are asking if I am a mind healer?The damage I could do to myself? To her?"

Jaclyn looked him right in the eye, her expression carefully blank and her thoughts laced with amusement. "No."

The eldar resisted the urge to punch the human. "Then understand when I say that the damage would kill us both. If we were favored. While I MIGHT be able to help, I will not bother to even contemplate an attempt until I know she will not be yanked out halfway through the endeavor. And it WILL affect my ability to assist on ground missions."

Jaclyn stared at him for a moment, before bringing her hand around to reveal an active omnitool. She smirked as she deactivated the omnitool before nodding. "Fair enough. You have a nice day, Arlas."

He watched her leave without another word, before returning to his seat. He wasted a few seconds feeling vaguely outmaneuvered, before returning to his omnitool. He glanced up as Yol'Pvera relayed the message of the Twins leaving the _Normandy_ , before returning to his program. The upgrade for his long rifle was coming along quite nicely; it would give him something to use at range against vehicles.

* * *

Arlas was at the workbench in the hangar a few hours after his talk with Jaclyn. Tali and Garrus were looking over the schematics of the upgrade to his geth rifle. Neither were very enthusiastic about the design, Tali calling it an 'untested rusty {boshtet} bastard of an overcompensating krogan,' while Garrus had simply said that it was 'at best a vehicle mounted weapon, and at worst a threat to everything within fifty meters.' Arlas had listened to Tali's many complaints about the weapon and then Garrus' less numerous ones before agreeing to make a second rifle, rather than attempting to modify the current rifle. He had already placed an order through a supplier the Twins had everyone use for things the requisition officer didn't offer, and was waiting for his datapad back before starting work on the rifle.

Arlas found the waiting was actually enjoyable for a change, rather than tortuous as he had expected and wondered what the difference was. Perhaps the changes from the merging with the Thorian were becoming more pronounced and obvious? He found himself using unusual turns of phrase and reacting differently than he had before, and the changes were worrying. He might be suffering from something the Thorian did while he was merged, he might be starting his own Fall, or it might be the mon-keigh were driving him utterly insane and his eldar companions weren't enough to stop it.

His thoughts were interrupted as the hangar lift chimed, and the door slid open. The eldar looked up from the workbench, ignoring Tali's latest rant about the rifle design. All three spectres and Liara entered the hangar, along with a familiar asari with reddish purple facial markings, and what passed among the locals for heavy blue and white armor. As the group approached, he felt the vessel shudder, disconnecting from the Citadel. "So, I presume the Council agreed to leave Benezia in our care?"

Liara and both of them humans looked exhausted, but Joannis nodded. "They did, though Spectre Vasir has been assigned to provide impartial observation of her while she is in the care of the Systems Alliance. We are currently heading to Arcturus Station to have a quick refit of several rooms on the third level, into a functional brig. Assuming of course that you can actually help Benezia. Chakwas has thrown in the towel, and has no idea what is wrong with her other than something is wrong with Benezia's brain."

He nearly asked what a towel had to do with what they were talking about, before dismissing it as unimportant. Instead, he simply leaned against the weapon bench he had been working at, and waited impassively. He felt Quel'Nayrae stepping out of the lander, and sent her a mental acknowledgement that he had sensed her. Liara spoke up. "You mentioned you might be able to help my mother. It formed the core of our argument to keep her here."

He could feel Quel'Nayrae's eyes boring into the back of his head, even before she sent her disbelief. * _What are they talking about?_ *

Arlas allowed himself a mental sigh, before sending what he knew of the situation to her. * _Injured mother of the blue mon-keigh, unusual psyker sense in her head. I have some training as a warlock, so I took the basic mind-healing training. I was sent to find out what was here. This is proof of something… different._ *

The mind-word he used had significant connotations, most of them dangerous or threatening. As Quel'Nayrae consider his reasoning, he turned back to the conversation with the mon-keigh. "So I am to focus on assisting Benezia recover instead of ground operations?"

All four spectres gave him varying expressions of interest. He sighed, before going into specifics. "I am going to be merging my mind with someone of a different upbringing, gender, and race. And that is before whatever I sensed when I brushed against her mind. I will be expending more energy working with her for one hour than I do in a day of ground combat, and I am unpracticed for centuries and with incomplete training. Depending on what I sensed, there is a chance I will have to kill her to try and save myself if it tries to infect me.

"If nothing goes wrong, I am still trying to do something far outside my training. It may be the only thing I can do is confirm that nothing can be done without waiting for the rest of my people. And even if I can do something, this process can take decades among my kind, depending on the mental injury."

He debated going further into the dangers of what he was doing, not the least of which was that an errant thought might do irreparable harm to the subject, but decided that he was already overstating his point. Joannis nodded. "So her options are a medically induced coma, whatever you can do, or death?"

Jaclyn looked at Vasir, while Joannis looked at Liara, who spoke before anyone else. "Help her, please. It could take centuries for me to find another Eldar willing to help."

Jaclyn added her thoughts. "And we need to know what Saren is up to. We still have no idea what he was doing on Noveria with the Rachni."

Joannis nodded. "Alright, assuming you are willing, please assist Benezia in her recovery until further notice. You can begin after we leave Arcturus station, we are heading there now for refit, and should be leaving within sixty hours of arriving."

She paused as if she wanted to continue, before looking over the two crates of items that were near the lander, and another black crate that had been shoved into the corner of the hangar. Joannis looked back at Arlas. "Do I want to know?"

Tali answered before he could. "That crazy bosh'tet is… is… gah!"

She threw the datapad with the schematic he was working from at Joannis, before storming back to the engine room. Arlas shrugged, before heading to the crates as the newcomers looked over the data pad. Quel'Nayrae shot him a glare, reminding him that she was still waiting. "(*Have you Fallen?*)"

He glanced up at the ramp, noticing that Kap'Eiyl had come out join her in the wraithguard. Yol'Pvera joined in as well, making him mentally sigh in exasperation. * _I wasn't concerned at first, but now your mind is different. Before you were concerned about them as useful pawns. Now I am unsure what you think of them. Teaching them our way of melee?_ *

Kap'Eiyl's arms moved to his side, disbelief and disgust coloring his wordless mental outcry. Arlas glanced at the workbench, and cursed as he saw that all four spectres were watching the Eldar, all of them showing concern or suspicion. Liara had left with Garrus at some point. Arlas turned back to the conversation "(*I am giving her absolute basics, she likely can barely handle that. In return, I am learning how to use their cognitors in return, which I can then pass on to others without needing to concede things. What she is giving me is infinitely more useful than guidance on how to not get stabbed.*)"

Kap'Eiyl finally vocalized his thoughts. * _We don't need their help. We are the eldest race, and all the mon-keigh are good for is pawns and distractions. Asuryani spend lesser races to preserve their own. And if you can't remember that, you are NOT Asuryani._ *

Arlas made a sweeping gesture with his left hand, indicating contemptuous dismissal of their position. "(*Enough! None of you have been on the craftworld for centuries, at the absolute minimum, so you know not its situation. How many lived on the craftworld when you were last on?*)"

Quel'Nayrae paused, not expecting the sudden turn of the conversation. "(*How does that concern this conversation?*)"

He didn't yell, as Eldar did not yell, but instead added a threatening hiss to his words. "(*Answer the question, and say when you last checked.*)"

Quel'Nayrae glanced back at the wraithguard behind her, then at Prarmer sitting between her and the pathfinder, before answering. "(*The craftworld contained one hundred twenty million Asuryani when we left.*)"

The pathfinder nodded as Yol'Pvera replied. * _I did not check when we were last on the craftworld, but there were one hundred twenty seven million Asuryani when I died four centuries previous._ *

Arlas kept his emotions closely controlled as he spoke slowly and clearly. "(*As of half a year ago, the craftworld contains a total of fifty million Asuryani.*)"

He watched all three of his Eldar companions mentally recoil in shock, before continuing. "(*Almost two hundred and twenty Asuryani years ago, the craftworld received a scream for aid from another craftworld. The entirety of the craftworld fleet responded. As was normal, the craftworld departed the star they were near as the fleet left, intending to linger in the dark space between stars.

"(*Just after the fleet left, the Craftworld reported they were detecting an overwhelming number of contacts at range. Then they screamed for assistance, before they were silenced by the sheer weight of their opponents.*)"

He took a deep breath, deliberately switching to only speaking to keep his memories of that time under control. "(I was on a Cresistauead world, hunting for spirit stones. I received the pained scream of utter terror from the craftworld, as did the two rangers I was working with. We immediately retreated to assist the craftworld. It took us a nearly a week to get back to the webway portal, and another day to make our way back to the craftworld. We were joined by what I believe to be every ranger and corsair that could return home.

"(We emerged into a scene from the Warp itself.)"

He took another deep breath, before continuing. "(The craftworld had been engulfed by the edge of a fleet like nothing we had seen since the fall of the homeworld. Living ships, directed by an intelligence more foul and vicious than anything other than warp born monstrosities. They were numberless, and would simply bury us forms.

"(It took a week to fight our way out of the swarm of living ships, losing nearly half our fleet in the process, and a year to finish sweeping the infantry out of the craftworld, and by then we were down more than half our population. We don't use guardians anymore, everyone is required to train at least a decade at a shrine, and that is the least of the changes required by the Seer Council.)"

He glared at the two present Eldar, ignoring the gyrinx at Quel'Nayrae's feet trying to comfort her. "(*So yes, I will continue to deal with the mon-keigh, and ensure that they view us as equals if not superiors. Almost anything is better than seeing another Asuryani child torn to pieces in front of me.*)"

He picked out the pieces he had come to the crates for before turning back to the mon-keigh. Icivia and Vasir were watching him carefully, as the Twins continued to examine the data pad, though Jaclyn was typing on her omnitool. Icivia spoke as he returned to the workbench. "What was that about?"

"They were protesting the unnecessary danger I am placing myself in."

Both Spectres did not look like they believed him, but dropped that line of questioning. Vasir glanced to the corner, her expression suddenly twisting to disgust. "Who ordered the Real Partner Mech?"

Arlas glanced at the black crate in the corner of the hangar, with a simple but surprisingly elegant engraved silver logo on what he assumed was the front of the large crate. It was as tall as him, and a meter wide and deep, and utterly featureless other than the logo. It had come in with his two crates of weapon parts, training blades, and assorted other items. Since the human who was supposed to be in charge of requisitions had checked everything that came through the bay door, Arlas wasn't worried about it. He knew exactly how difficult it was to sneak things on board human ships, he had had to do it nearly a dozen times back in his original universe.

His musings were interrupted as Jaclyn looked up. "No idea about the mech, but assuming the rifle doesn't tear itself apart, is there a reason you are building something that can engage frigates in low orbit?"

Arlas sighed. "What is a monkey?"

"Are you still going on about that?"

"Until I get an answer, yes."

Done with the conversation and ignoring the confused look Spectre Vasir was giving the others, he put the pieces of his rifle on the bench. He reclaimed the data pad and began putting the rifle together.

* * *

Arlas finished putting the last touch on the new rifle, having spent the entire time from leaving the Citadel putting it together. He lacked anything better to do, and his revelation of what had happened to the craftworld had rocked his companions, making them avoid him. He shifted the rifle, and frowned. It was heavier than he expected, almost outside his ability to carry. "(*Expecting to run into tanks?*)"

He glanced over at Quel'Nayrae, standing behind him and examining his creation while Prarmer stood in front of her, glaring at him. Arlas glared back. "(*Why is Prarmer so distrustful of me? He has been forcing my distance from you since he first woke up.*)"

She smiled softly, reaching down to gentle rub Prarmer's forehead. "(*Prarmer is simply doing the job my older brother gave him before he was killed. He was a warlock for the Dire Avengers, before he was killed by the forces of the Immaterium. He is simply protecting me, and does that to every male we meet.*)"

She gave the gyrinx a small smile, before straightening. "(*I have asked him to stop many times, he refuses. But that was an initiates attempt to dodge my question, Pathfinder.*)"

He gestured to the rifle. "(*I have forgotten how many times I have needed something heavier than a standard sniper rifle when scouting ahead of a host. This will, hopefully, correct that if required.*)"

He picked up the rifle with a soft grunt of effort. * _Heavier than anticipated. Need to see about getting lighter materials. Might have to build some..._ *

The ship's comm cut off his thought. "Arlas, please report to Commander Shepard on deck three. Arlas to Shepard on deck three."

The pathfinder glanced up at the speaker, irritation lacing his thoughts, before shaking his head and carrying the rifle to the lander. "(*Need to put the weapons away so the children don't hurt themselves with them.*)"

Quel'Nayrae laughed, a sound like liquid crystal in his mind; soothing, pleasurable and enjoyable. "(*When did they mature to the state of children?*)"

He gave her a mental shrug, as he entered the elevator, leaving her to start working on repairing the Vyper. A minute later, he finally arrived on the third deck, and stepped out into a throng of humans he didn't recognize. He took a second to control the sudden urge to go for the only weapon he was currently wearing, his pistol, before continuing onto the deck. He headed unerringly toward the rear of the deck where the extra storage areas were being converted, sensing the Twins back near it.

He stepped around several humans lugging either crates or pieces of metal, while a couple others were walking while focused on their omnitools. After a moment, he spotted the Twins stepping out of one of the former storerooms, talking to a familiar dark skinned older human male. Arlas nodded to the trio. "Twins, Shipmaster Anderson."

The humans looked up, the females simply nodding in greeting as Anderson glared and growled a reply. "It is captain. We talked about that when we first met."

Arlas shrugged and turned back to the Twins, waiting for them to explain why they needed him. They didn't wait long. "We were inspecting the room Benezia will be held in while you work. Is there anything you will need in the room that we can provide? Captain Anderson was just catching up with us."

Jaclyn took over for her sister. "He has been assigned a small squadron of vessels, and will be out looking for proof that the Reapers exist while we run down Saren."

Arlas frowned. "Perhaps I should see the room before I say what it needs."

He entered the room the Twins had just vacated, and looked around. The room was small, only a handful of meters to a side and short enough he had to stoop slightly, and completely empty. A small bunk had been permanently affixed to the far wall, and a single light was recessed into the ceiling, providing ample light to illuminate the room without being too bright or giving a possible prisoner something to break and use as a weapon. The wall against the corridor had been curved inward, making it impossible for something to try and ambush anyone entering.

Looking over the room, he was slightly amused that he didn't need to request anything to be removed. But as he turned to leave, he glanced at the light again, and frowned as his danger sense suddenly twitched. He moved forward, but a more thorough examination of the light didn't reveal anything, the opaque covering preventing him from seeing anything inside. The eldar wasn't fooled by apparent normalcy of the light nor by his lack of finding anything. He trusted his dangersense.

Stepping out of the room, he looked at the Twins. "Have the light panel disassembled. I will return shortly."

He left before they could ask questions, returning to the hangar by way of the emergency ladder so he didn't have to wait until Armageddon on the elevator. A quick trip to the armory got him his sword and carapace armor, before he was heading back to the third floor.

Three minutes after leaving, he was back in the hallway, ignoring the confused glare he was getting from the Twins, or the amused look Shipmaster Anderson was giving him. The human male glanced at the two women. "Is he always like that?"

Joannis shrugged. "Making demands, vanishing without telling you why, and then ignoring you when you finally track him down and ask?"

Jaclyn nodded. "Yes, but usually he is worse."

"So pushy."

"And hairy."

"And stinky."

"And man is he UGLY."

Arlas simply turned his head, very slowly, to give the Twin humans a death glare, despite feeling that they were merely being humorous with him. "You realize that that litany of insults was enough to warrant the deaths of yourselves, you families, your friends, and your friends' families?"

Joannis kept talking like she hadn't heard him, clearly realizing he wasn't being serious with the threat. "Mean too."

"And so quick to anger. It's no wonder he doesn't have an asari girlfriend yet."

"Even with the voyeurism, kidnapping, stripping and bondage fetish he has."

"Maybe we should see if Liara is interested."

Anderson was doing his best 'military stare into the distance,' though his emotions were roiling with amusement laced with dread. Arlas glared at the two human women for a moment, before taking the mature choice and ignoring the Twins. Luckily for his sanity, a technician came out holding the light fixture. "Took it out like you asked ma'am. Didn't see anything wrong with it or the wiring."

Arlas frowned at the tech, before stepping into the room, and looking up at where the light had been. His dangersense was still twitching, which he knew from experience meant that it wasn't physically harmful, but could still do damage to him later. Other than a slight discoloration to a section of the metal ceiling behind where the light had been, he couldn't see anything odd. "Other than the discoloration, I don't see anything. Strange."

The tech looked up from his examination, blinking as his thoughts swirled suddenly. "What discoloration?"

Arlas pulled out his sword and tapped the discolored section of metal, idly noting it sounded different. Solid, as opposed to the more hollow sound the rest of the walls made when he tapped them. "That one."

The tech walked back into the room, followed by the two spectres and Anderson. "I didn't see a discoloration. And there isn't one where your sword is."

Arlas turned back to the mon-keigh, before abruptly stabbing the discolored section of metal as he realized that to the humans it wasn't discolored. He was only seeing it because he could see colors humans didn't have the ability to. The metal let out a couple feeble sparks, and then detached from the ceiling as it lost power. Arlas looked over the device on his sword, before carefully removing it.

A quartet of pistons had held the item in place, now slack as it had lost power, but he couldn't see anything that connected the device to the ship. "What is that?"

The tech carefully took the device from the eldar, turning it over in his hands, surprised and confused as he examined it. "I have… never seen something like this. And I know there wasn't supposed to be anything there."

Anderson scowled, before bringing his omnitool to his lips. "Anderson to security. Seal the Normandy's hangar, and have all the techs line up outside. Someone was planting tech inside the ship. Did any of the techs leave?"

Anderson's scowl only got bigger when he got a reply after a short wait. "Find them, all of them."

The captain closed the communication line, before shaking his head. "Three techs left the hangar already. Only one answered their omnitool. Give me that device, I will look into the missing techs. I am not scheduled to deploy for a while yet."

Arlas stepped around the others, heading back to the elevator. "I saw nothing else that needed corrections. I trust you do not require my help further?"

As the humans indicated they did not, he left, heading back to his ship. He needed to make an actual long rifle before working on the new rifle again, though after that he could start trying to make it lighter. If the rifle worked.

* * *

Joannis looked up from her desk as Jaclyn came in. "So, what did you and Anderson find?"

Jaclyn threw herself into the chair with a snarl of disgust. "One of the techs just up and vanished. Both the others were out getting supplies, but the third just up and vanished. No traces in the security systems, and only a couple eye witnesses. Me and Anderson think he got on one of the three ships that left before we could issue an alert to check all ships, but one is heading to an outpost that is famous for 'communication problems.' We probably won't find him there, but SAI is on it. They will track him down."

Joannis nodded, and shoved a data pad to one side, before picking up another. "And the device?"

Her twin shrugged. "Some kind of snoopy thing. I am not the brains of this pair, sis. You tell me what it does, I just break spines and skulls."

Joannis looked up from the report she was reading, an eyebrow raised as she grinned at her twin. After a moment, her twin laughed and nodded. "Yes, I did swing by to give Arlas a hard time again. What are you looking at?"

"Orders. Direct from Admiral Hackett."

She tossed the data pad to her twin, who read the orders with a frown. "Maroon Sea and wait for contact? What the actual fuck? Why not give us the assignment here?"

Joannis shrugged. "Super secret squirrel stuff, no doubt."

She reached over and tapped a button on the computer, activating her comm to the cockpit. "Joker, Joannis. How fast can we make to the Maroon Sea area? Two paths please."

The pilot coughed, and then swallowed noisily. "Dammit… I mean, err, sorry ma'am, having lunch. Aye aye, Maroon Sea at 'damn the engines' speed. ETA is… about seventeen hours fastest route, or another five hours to avoid being near the pasty slaver's space. Which do you want ma'am?"

Joannis glanced at Jaclyn, who shook her head slightly. "Longer route Joker, give the crew ten minutes to get back, then get us there. Have Pressly recall everyone."

She closed the communication line, and stretched. "Right, Benezia is in her holding pen, Vasir is set up in the new guard room beside it. Arlas said he would help Benezia tomorrow after spending today preparing, so he will be ready to start right about when we hit the Maroon Sea."

"Which means whatever mission we get from the communication won't have Arlas along. Hmm, should I be disappointed we won't have his weapons, or relieved we don't have to deal with his arrogance?"

"Disappointed. He has been getting better about keeping his arrogance in check since Feros."

Jaclyn gave her an arched eyebrow. "Really? I haven't noticed. Anything else we need to discuss, or can I go terrorize Joker for getting crumbs on the pilot's station?"

"Well, engineering has reported a way to possibly improve…"

* * *

"Arlas, report to the briefing room please. Arlas to briefing room."

The pathfinder paused with his hand nearly on the button to call the elevator, before turning and heading to the emergency ladder. He had been spending the last day preparing his mind for a mental merging with the comatose asari, and now the humans were breaking his carefully cultured calm. Arlas emerged on the third deck, and headed up to the briefing room, stalking in with only slightly concealed distaste. "I was about to start the first attempt to cleanse Benezia. Is this important?"

Jaclyn gave him a glare, but Joannis just nodded. "We dropped into real space from the relay, and spotted this."

The image screen behind her showed three Geth ships in space, all of them badly damaged. The center was the worst off, a small ship only a fifty meters long according to the scale attached to the image, while the two flanking ships were nearly five times its size. The outer two ships were connected to the first ship by what looked like docking tubes, but a closer look at the smaller ship showed the hull had buckled near where the tubes connected. Joannis let him examine the image for a minute before speaking. "Since we were ordered to loiter in system until contacted by command, I have decided to investigate the geth ships. None have active weapons or sensors, and only minimal engine power, indicating that they have been in that position for a while. We are going to board the smaller vessel after destroying the power plants and engines of the two larger ones.

"We called you because Tali said that each of the larger ships can hold up to a thousand standard geth chassis, and that she had never seen the smaller ship type before. Sorry to say, but you will be needed on this assault, there is no telling how many geth we are going to encounter. Records show no System Alliance ships have been in this system in a month, though there is currently an attempt at founding a colony in a different system of this cluster. Scans show four plants with limited resources, a modest planetoid in the asteroid belt, and nothing else. So whatever the geth are doing here, we need to know."

Arlas sighed, before nodding. "Fair. I haven't started assisting Benezia yet, so you can still request my help. I will need some time to get ready. Will we be using the lander to get to the geth ship?"

The Twins shared a look before nodding. Arlas turned to leave, "Very well, I will be ready in ten minutes."

It was a short trip back to the ladder, so he reached out to the other eldar. * _The humans need my help in combat._ *

Quel'Nayrae sent back her annoyance as Yol'Pvera began . * _Again? Flighty creatures, you were supposed to be dealing with that elder asari._ *

He sent back what he knew, as he entered the lander, making his way to the armory. He entered as Quel'Nayrae stepped away from the Wraithguard, its chest sealing shut to protect Kap'Eiyl's spirit stone. The spirit warrior sent a question as his mind expanded to fill the wraithbone construct. * _What weapon should I take?_ *

Arlas pulled his tabard off, carefully folding the fabric as he placed it on a small shelf. "Derelict ship action, so mostly infantry. The shuriken cannon or the wraithcannon. Though you might not be able to board, depending on the damage"

The wraithguard sent his understanding before grabbing the shuriken cannon. A minute of work and Arlas was in his own armor, trusting Quel'Nayrae to have looked it over after each battle. She had certainly made enough noise about his inability to do so previously. He then grabbed the long rifle Tali had given him, the shuriken catapult, and his fusion gun, before filling the various pouches with grenades and a pair of melta bombs. Done loading enough explosives to blast his way from one end of the geth vessel they intended to board to the other, he headed to the cockpit.

Arlas took the co-pilot's seat, and lightly melded with the vessel. After a moment of being ignored by Yol'Pvera, he mentally 'walked' over to her spirit and rested beside her, before directing a thought at her. * _You took the news of the craftworld fortunes poorly. I apologize, I thought the seers had let you know._ *

The spirit gave a melancholic sigh. * _They said they didn't need me distracted by things outside my craft. I didn't meet my sister or her two daughters, and now you tell me they might already be enshrined in the Infinity Circuit._

* _Pathfinder, you are an unrepentant ass._ *

She disconnected him from the ship with a mental twist, leaving him sitting alone in the cockpit with only his thoughts for company. After a moment he left the cockpit, pausing long enough to touch Kap'Eiyl's chassis, leaving only a feeling of lingering regret, the Eldar equivalent of an apology. A few steps later, he was in the troop bay, waiting for the mon-keigh. He wasn't aware he was broadcasting his emotion of self-disgust until someone coughed. "Arlas, everyone is here."

The Eldar glanced at Joannis as he got his emotions back under control, noting everyone was in their seats before hitting the wraithbone with his fist. The bay doors slid shut immediately, and the lander smoothly left the bay. Arlas glanced at the Twins as he thought of something. "Do we need to hit the larger vessels, or will yours handle it?"

His question was answered as the display on the bay door showed the Normandy swoop down on one of the vessels. The System Alliance vessel's main cannon fired twice, blowing the rear third of one of the Geth vessels completely off, before eviscerating the hulk with its guardian lasers as it swooped past. Not to be left out of the mayhem, Yol'Pvera fired her Pulsar once, vaporizing the forward half of the second vessel. A quick maneuver and she used her scatter laser turret to blast one of the boarding tubes from the smaller vessel, giving her a place to disembark the troops. Arlas stood up and grabbed one of the ceiling rungs, not needing to connect with Yol'Pvera to know what she was planning. "Everyone up, you will be doing a quick void jump to the geth vessel. Once open, we all have thirty seconds to jump, so move quickly. Seal armor now, troop bay is venting atmosphere. Kap'Eiyl, you won't be able to board."

Even as he finished speaking, the bay alarm sounded, and the pumps began sucking air out of the troop bay. Only Kaidan and Garrus had not already sealed their armor, but both had it done fast enough that he didn't need to delay the draining of the atmosphere. Ashley and Wrex jumped across the handful of meters to the derelict first, followed by the Twins, then Icivia and Garrus, and finally Tali and Kaidan. Liara stepped up to the edge, and looked around, before shuddering, and then jumping across, letting Arlas bring up the rear. He was amused by the fact that Liara forgot to turn off her communicator. "Don't look down. Don't look down."

Arlas landed on the other side of the small gap, Liara landing immediately behind him. He turned and watched the lander fly away, and sent a thought. * _Sweep the hull of geth troops. They may try to outflank us along the external hull. Pulse and scatter lasers only please._ *

The spirit pilot didn't respond, making Arlas sigh and turn back to the group. Half the group was already moving off into one of the corridors, leaving Ashley, Icivia, Liara, and Wrex waiting for him. "Mission?"

Icivia replied. "We are to hit the engine room, and try and rip any data from any active terminals. The others are heading to the main server room. But be careful, and make sure you isolate your omnis before you try. You don't want to bring back geth programs onto the ship."

The Pathfinder nodded, and pulled his shuriken catapult off his hip, ensuring the oversized clip was seated properly, before following along at the back of the group. He was using the jump jets on his armor to facilitate movement, rather than some sort of magnetic footwear like the rest of the squad.

Arlas found the entire mission slightly eerie. Maybe it was the lack of atmosphere on the ship, which he was told was normal for geth ships, as machines didn't need air, and it simply made it possible for damage to propagate further. Maybe it was the utter lack of noise, as even the space hulks he had helped clear before had had some kind of noise, even if it was simple vibrations he was hearing through his footsteps. But he suspected it was the fact there were still 'bodies, the destroyed chassis of geth, and fluids that hung above deck in void gravity, yet none of them were blood.

After a few minutes of moving through the derelict, and engaging a handful of geth, Icivia opened a squad communication. "Anyone seen anything other than geth?"

Wrex replied first. "Nope."

Arlas rolled his eyes at Wrex's extensive report, but no one else contradicted him. Icivia didn't reply for a moment, instead pausing at an intersection, checking all directions before snarling. "Then what were they fighting? I see nothing but destroyed geth."

Liara spoke up, her voice hesitant. "Perhaps they were fighting each other? Some kind of major systemic computer virus infection?"

Icivia's frown could be heard through the communicator. "Maybe. But that doesn't answer why the other geth boarded the ship. They would have blown it out of the deep black if it was a virus."

The Spectre looked over the corridor, before snarling something unpleasant. "We move down this left corridor. Wrex, you are rear guard, Liara will assist. Ashley, you clear the rooms with me on the right. Arlas, you get the rooms on the left. You find an active terminal, download everything into your omnitool. If you find more than one active terminal in a room, call out so we know what your delay is."

The group nodded, and proceeded down the hallway. Most of the rooms they checked were storage rooms for supplies or for housing and repair of geth chassis. None of them had active terminals. After a half hour of searching, the group continued down the main hall of the small geth vessel, and arrived in the engine room.

The engine room was oppressively tight, barely enough room for Ashley to squeeze between the machinery. Wrex had to stay near the bulkhead that separated the engine room for the hall, and Liara stayed with him. Icivia got caught twice trying to squeeze between machines before she finally changed her plans. "Arlas, you and Ashley are the only ones that can get through machines. I am heading back to the others. Keep in contact."

She turned back with a grumble, pausing to pull herself free of something caught on her armor, before continuing back to the entrance. Arlas looked at Ashley in front of him, before gesturing for her to continue. The human shrugged, before turning around to push through another narrow section. Arlas started counting in his head, and when he got to sixteen, Ashley spoke. "So, you mentioned fighting machines back home once. I think. Any tips here?"

Arlas snorted under his helmet, both disappointed and impressed. Disappointed she hadn't even made a third of a minute, impressed that she was focusing on the job for a change. "The machines I fought have nothing in common with these things. I would suggest not getting hit by the ones back home. Here, shoot harder, faster and straighter. Though having better armor wouldn't hurt."

Ashley turned her head to glare at him, halfway past the next toppled piece of engine machinery. "I am wearing some of the best armor in the galaxy that isn't reserved by a government for spec ops units. This Colossus mark ten heavy armor has the best plating available to the general public. It costs more than I make in four years, and I only got it because the Commanders got it for me. The only comparable armor is the Predator mark ten heavy, and it doesn't stop bullets as well despite having better shields."

Arlas nodded and started his way through the damaged machinery, Ashley finally making it out the other side. "And I am sure it is very impressive against your people's weapons. Let me test it against my fusion gun, and see how it does."

Ashley glared even harder as she waited on the other side of the blockage, before nodding. "Fair point, and I doubt it would resist your long rifle as well. What would you suggest then?"

Her question actually made him pause, before he finished climbing out from under the machinery and moved past her, getting over the next toppled piece of engine. "Thicker plating, maybe even more layers. And a fully encasing helm. Enhance the shoulder pauldrons, and make them even thicker than the rest, those provide cover for your head when you are firing. Build the armor like you would a tank, and then build tanks even heavier."

Ashley hummed behind him, waiting for him to get clear before she tried her hand at getting through the debris. "But then they are slow, and can't maneuver or keep up with an opponent."

Arlas sent back irritation, as he began examining the next set of debris blocking their path. After a few seconds, he reactivated his squad communication as he spotted something between a collapsed section of ceiling and a piece of engine. "Couple of active terminals on the other side of rubble, trying to find our way through. Significant damage to the engine room is making it difficult to path effectively."

He waited for Icivia to respond, before turning back to Ashley. "Then don't change them all. The biggest problem with all your weapons and armor is that they all use Eezo. Which means that if something can disable it from a distance, you are without weapons and armor. And what armor you do have is frankly pathetic."

"And how do you know that?"

"When I took out three 'tanks' with my Vyper that was built to shred infantry groups. They should have taken at least some form of sustained fire, not just a burst from each gun."

Ashley snorted behind him. "To be fair, those were owned and operated by a band of pirates."

He turned around and gestured dismissively at her. "No excuse. I did enough research on your people's equipment to know that 'tank' was a lightly armored troop transport back home. Likely improvised. One of my people's tanks could have shredded entire regiments of yours, likely without being hit."

Ashley grumbled to herself, but then tapped her omnitool, making Arlas blink. He tilted his head slightly, before continuing to try and find a path to the active consoles he had spotted. "What was that?"

"We have been trying to get your opinion on our tech for a while, and if we thought we might, record it. The eggheads have been pulling their hair out, trying to guess how our equipment measured up. We knew we were behind, sixty million years isn't going to be countered by gumption and guts and a bloody minded spiteful determination, but how far is good to know."

Arlas allowed himself to chuckle, as he squeezed between another piece of debris. "And yet that determination saw your people doing far more than most of mine thought. Your kind had less than fifty thousand years back home, and yet your people's greatest could stand against mine in open battle."

He didn't mention that 'open battle' only happened when every other option open to the Eldar had failed, and they preferred to never fight fairly. As his first Exarch had said, 'The only fair battle is your last one. Always manipulate the odds, your opponent will never hesitate to. Your job is to make the other side die for his people, as long as you are capable for.' He got out of the rubble, and sighed at the sight before him. The wall of the engine room and rubble on both sides blocked any further progress. Arlas activated his communicator, linking to Icivia. "The active consoles are completely cut off. I can get to them, but Ashley can't. Also, we have explored the entire engine room, those two consoles are the only active ones."

There was a long pause before Icivia answered. "The Twins want that information. Those are the only two active terminals on the ship, and the other ships are shrapnel after the pilots apparently had a competition to see who could more thoroughly demolish their target. So everything we can learn is on those two terminals."

Arlas rolled his eyes, before spinning his jump generator. Ashley was already making her way out of the engine room, cursing under her breath. As he landed after the leap through the Immaterium, he frowned. The warp had been slightly agitated, like near the Guided Wrath, but even more so. After a second of contemplation, considering that there might be another Eldar ship in the area, he reached out to the Eldar. * _Can everyone see if they can sense any other Asuryani in the system? The warp is… disturbed._ *

He cut the connection as the others acknowledged his request, before moving to the terminals he had landed beside. Both flickered, and the debris meant he had to stoop to get closer to the terminals. As he got closer, he felt the long rifle on his back suddenly catch on something. A quick glance showed the rifle had partially deployed, catching on some debris. It was a moment of work got the massive rifle off his back in the confined space, but he eventually slipped free and place the rifle on a nearby piece of rubble. He would figure out why it malfunctioned later.

It took only a moment to get the data from the first, but it still took too long and both consoles lost power just before he completed getting everything off the first console. He stared at the second console, before grabbing his rifle and began trying to get it to collapse again. "Icivia, got almost everything off the first console, but the section lost power before I could get to the second one."

He heard Icivia cursing for a moment, before she replied. "Acknowledged Arlas, get back to the extraction point. The other group is already waiting."

The pathfinder finally got his rifle to behave by expanding it fully and then collapsing it, returning its slot. A quick jump later and he was back near the entrance, where he joined Ashley and Icivia. He didn't see Wrex or Liara, but the others turned to leave before he could ask. Shrugging to himself, he continued after them, curious as to what the hurry was, even as he reached out to Yol"pvera. * _We are done and require extraction. Find anything?_ *

She sent back understanding, followed by hesitant denial. * _No, but there_ _ **is**_ _something here._ *

* _Right, we can come back and check after we are not with the mon-keigh._ *

He felt her surprise, and sent back his amusement. * _Still Asuryani business, and I don't know that these ones require assistance. Or if they do, they aren't as blatant about it as the Guided Wrath was._ *

Arlas looked up as they arrived back at the extraction point, and looked at the Twins who were standing to one side, and having a debate with each other on a private communication. He moved to Ashley, who was conversing with Tali on improving her armor's shields, and waited for a lull in the conversation. "What are those two debating about?"

Ashley looked over at him, her eyes narrowing behind his clear visor. "They are on a private channel. How do you know they are debating?"

He just turned to stare directly at the human, before tilting his head slightly, reminding her who she was dealing with. After a second, Ashley coughed and rubbed rubbed the top of her helmet. "Right, sorry, reflexive. Tali?"

Tali shrugged, not looking up from her omnitool. "They got a transmission from the Normandy, and immediately had us all turn around. Considering the main server room and bridge looked like it took a ship round through it, completely destroying all the controls, I doubt we would have found anything in there. The round also damaged just about everything else on the ship, according to the scan the Normandy did while we were exploring the ship. Not sure what destroyed the geth on board, but it wasn't mass effect technology."

Arlas nodded in thanks, waiting nearly six seconds before moving toward the area where the lander would pick them up. He was almost to end of the ship, with only open void in front of him, when someone finally noticed what he was doing. Liara's voice echoed through the squad channel. "Arlas?"

He glanced back as he jumped out of the ship, ignoring the sudden appearance of the landing, flashing into view before flipping over and presenting the troop bay door, just as he reached out for it. "Yes? Is everyone coming, or would they rather wait for the other ship?"

Done showing off, he entered the troop bay, and took his seat, acting unconcerned about his method of boarding, even as he sent a thanks to Yol'Pvera about being so precise. Once the others floated in in a more sedate and sane manner, he looked over at the Twins. "So, what did we learn?"

Jaclyn leaned back, talking on a separate channel as Joannis answered. "Something attacked those geth ships, and the wounds weren't consistent with mass effect rounds. Some were burnt while others were cut to shreds, though not like with your sword. We will have to wait until a science team gets here and examines the wreckage to know more."

Arlas turned to Tali, pulling off his omnitool and handing it across. "This interfaced with geth technology. Perhaps you should hold onto it until you are certain it isn't contaminated by geth."

Tali took the omnitool, but paused when she glanced at his shoulder, her voice suddenly flat. "You took the geth rifle onto the geth derelict?"

Arlas glanced at the rifle in question, before removing it from his shoulder and handing it to her. "I overlooked that fact."

He frowned inside his helmet, cursing his lack of foresight. Now he was down his only working long rifle. Just as well that he was going to be busy dealing with the comatose asari, if he was letting such minor lapses into his judgement. He certainly didn't need to be on a battlefield if he was going to do things like that. Shaking his head, he started a calming meditation. With any luck, he would be mentally stable enough to start working on Benezia today.

* * *

Joannis finished setting up the security protocols in the communication room, and activated the communication line, saluting as the hologram of her CO appeared. "Sir, Commander Shepard reporting as ordered. Sorry for the delay, we were investigating a derelict geth ship, possibly a scout."

Admiral Hackett returned her salute, before dropping to parade rest. "At ease commander. I look forward to the report on it, especially since we picked your location because the location should be abandoned."

A second hologram sputtered into existence, eventually solidifying into a second person. Hackett greeted him first. "Defense Minster Kreiggeory is the reason for the secrecy on this assignment, commander."

The german-descended Canadian nodded to Shepard. "I only have a few minutes, Hackett, so let's keep this quick. A week ago someone made what we assumed was an attempt to assassinate me in my home. Due to the various circumstances around the attempt, we have kept it relatively quiet.

"The attempt was made by rifle from a distance of at least five kilometers. It passed through two different kinetic barriers without triggering them, and embedded in a wall after passing exactly ten centimeters from my head. The shot was made exactly one Earth day before I was due to meet with a Salarian diplomat to discuss a joint research project. Needless to say, my security canceled the meeting, thinking it was an active attempt to kill me. Since then, they have reevaluated the case from an actual attempt to kill me to a warning.

"My chief of security found nearly three dozen similar cases, all of the shots fired from a distance greater than five kilometers and passed at ten centimeters from the target. All of the cases involved a human who was scheduled to meet an alien within a week to discuss some significant research, military or business deal. Of the thirty three cases, including mine, seven were assassinated later, usually right after the scheduled meeting along with the entire non-human group."

The defenses minister took a drink, letting Hackett speak. "Intelligence agrees with his security's assessment, and further research showed that while no one ever officially claimed responsibility for the attacks and assassinations, examinations of the projectile show it was the same type of bullet from the same weapon. It was also determined to NOT be a mass effect weapon, due to the size of the round."

"Because of the similarity of the cases, and the fact that all of them happened to include non-humans working with humans, we are inclined to believe this was an act of terrorism, and sending you after the only group that would do something like this, and may have the ability to. Even better, Alliance Intelligence recently got an anonymous tip as to the location of one of their outposts."

Defense Minister Rommel Kreiggeory put his drink down, and seemed to look Joannis in the eye. "Spectre Joannis Shepard, we request your help to send a clear message to the terrorist organization Cerberus located on the planet Binthu in the Yangtze system of the Voyager cluster that the System's Alliance will not tolerate terrorist attacks."

Joannis Shepard nodded, not hesitating at all. "I accept."

 _A/N - The Tali poll has closed, and a new poll has gone up. We are coming up on Virmire soon(-ish) so we ALL know what the poll's question is. Get in and vote for the highly anticipated but entirely expected poll._

 _Also, yes I am aware that gyrinx are not 'usually' as intelligent as I am writing Prarmer. So taking a few minor creative liberties._


	32. Guardians of Hell

**Chapter 30 - Guardians of Hell**

' _I have been entrusted to guard the very Gates of Hell by the God-Emperor of Mankind himself! You? Barely an amusing diversion.' - Ordo Malleus Inquisitor_

Arlas smiled to Quel'Nayrae as she walked into the room. * _Well done, singer. Your addition will make this task much less dangerous._ *

Quel'Nayrae sent back fully justified pride, having completed a difficult job far faster than anticipated in conditions she had never trained for. While she knew how to warp proof a room, doing it on a mon-keigh vessel to a room that hadn't been built for that purpose was an unusual request. That she had done it in a day, when experienced singers required a week was a minor miracle, and Arlas had no compunctions against letting her know she had exceeded expectations. Warp proof rooms were rooms that were completely sealed against the Immaterium using wraithbone and were used in the craftworld by the Warp Spiders to train with their jump packs, Warlocks to train with their powers, and mind healers for healing mental wounds.

Arlas examined the room again, noting the pleasing curves of the walls rather than the harsh corners the humans used, the familiar color of wraithbone rather than the color of hard metal, and perhaps most significant and enjoyable of all, the psy-silence of the room. He let himself enjoy the quiet, only his own and Quel'Nayrae's thoughts echoing in the room, before heading for the door. * _Let's go see if Prarmer blew out a bulkhead getting away from the mon-keigh._ *

The pathfinder headed for the door only to pause at it opened, his mind coming under assault from every mon-keigh thought on the ship. Taking a second to harden his mind, he headed for the room where he could feel the gyrinx. Arlas opened the door to the room, stepped inside, and froze as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

Prarmer was sitting on the table in the middle of the room, with a half dozen females around him. Liara was gently stroking his throat, Joannis rubbing his back, and two of the crew members playing with his tail. Jaclyn and Vasir were sitting at the back of the group, discussing the similarities and differences between the gyrinx and certain species that had evolved on their home planets. He started to glance back at Quel'Nayrae, only to see the gyrinx notice him standing beside Quel'Nayrae.

Arlas quickly shoved Quel'Nayrae to one side and dove the other way, getting the builder and himself out of the way of the psyker gyrinx. He watched a suddenly ballistic chair fly through the space he was just in, hitting the far wall hard enough to dent the wall and destroy the chair, before Prarmer was in front of Quel'Nayrae snarling at him. He stared at the gyrinx in anger, before taking a deep breath to calm himself. * _If I am to leave, you need to move away from the door._ *

Prarmer didn't move, until Quel'Nayrae picked him up. He yowled in protest, but let himself be carried out of the room, glaring at Arlas the entire time. Once the gyrinx and his fellow Asuryani had left, he glanced at Joannis, ignoring the shocked looks everyone was giving him. "The room is prepared. Move Benezia in and I will start."

Vasir spoke up. "I will be there to watch."

Arlas sighed, wanting this part of the day over so he could start the hardest job he had ever done, but the mon-keigh apparently were as oblivious as always. "Absolutely not. We just finished isolating the room from all external influences. Or are you attempting to kill either your charge or myself? If so, stick to a weapon. It is what you are good at."

He turned and left before more questions could be asked, heading back to the hangar. He got to the ship through his usual method of using the emergency tunnels, thereby beating Prarmer and Quel'Nayrae to the ship. Once inside the ship, he stripped off his current Striking Scorpion tabard and changed into the Warlock tabard. He would need the calming, empowering, focusing and guidance runes that had been woven into the tabard, though hopefully the protection runes wouldn't be needed. He finished dressing for his task before moving to select the rune stones he would be taking with him, focusing on calming and healing runes, and as almost an afterthought he grabbed his dagger and pistol. Once he completed outfitting himself, he knelt in the rune circle inscribed in the center of the armory, going through the exercises to calm and clear his mind, dismissing the irritation at the fact that this was the third time in two days he had done so.

Once he calmed his mind he left the armory, noting that Quel'Nayrae was working on the Vyper and resisting the urge to throw something at the glaring gyrinx. A slow trip up the elevator didn't help his temper, but he needed to be calm and collected, and scrambling up the emergency ladders would be less helpful than being irritated at the elevator. The elevator announced it laborious completion of its task with a cheerful ding, far too proudly in his mind, before the doors opened to reveal the asari Spectre waiting for him. She gave him a once over, before snorting. "Finally got done with your make-up and decided to come and do your job? It has been four hours."

Arlas simply stared at her, letting a touch of his power manifest and drop the temperature around him. He held the power for a moment, not even blinking as he held the smirking Spectre's gaze, before simply walking past her toward the room as she slowly blinked. He stopped outside the room, before taking a long inhale, holding it, and then releasing it. Done readying his mind, he opened the door.

Arlas stepped into an emotional hell.

He braced himself as the anguish flowed out of the room, cursing himself for forgetting that, while sealing the room against the Warp kept external emotions out, it kept the ones brought into the room inside. And while normally the emotions of the mon-keigh were barely a candle to the Eldar, in a sealed room, even the least of pains would consume a small area like this.

Arlas paused to brace himself, absently noting he had actually taken a step back, before stepping into the room. He glanced about the room before sighing and drawing his dagger. A quick stab at a small 'bulge' near the floor of the room, and he picked up the sparking piece of electronics which hadn't been there when Quel'Nayrae had finished earlier. He placed the destroyed device in one of his belt pouches, before moving to examine the patient.

He eventually admitted that Doctor Chakwas was skilled at her craft, as Matriarch Benezia no longer looked like an asari version of the Crone goddess. Her skin had regained its color to a slightly darker shade than her daughter's skin, and she had started recovering from her previous skeletal state. She was wearing a simple and modest pastel green dress, likely purchased on the Citadel by Liara. Benezia's expression was relaxed, rather than pinched or even horrified as he had expected from the roiling emotions coming off her.

Arlas finished taking stock of… his patient, and resisted the urge to flinch at that thought, before moving around to stand beside Benezia's head. He pulled out his runes, setting four around her head and letting the other four circle him, before gently pressing his fingertips against the sides of her head, just in front of her head crests. Arlas paused, actually hearing every warning and threat of his Warlock teacher in his head as he violated several of the tenants of the shrine, the most basic being that a Warlock did not use their powers to directly help other races, unless it was to help the Asuryani.

It took a moment to conquer that teaching, before he linked his mind with the asari's. The first thing that he noticed was that 'oily slime' feeling he had detected the first time wasn't just a surface feeling, but it went deep into Benezia's mind, though there were several areas where the slime didn't penetrate. The feeling vaguely reminded him of that fuel source used by the insane religious females of the Imperium but with less dissolving of his skin. The second thing he determined was that the foreign sensation did not react to him, nor did it regrow when he tried to use a touch of power to carefully burn a small section 'free' and examine it. The slime immediately dissolved and what remained didn't reform or try to grow back into the cleared area.

He looked up from the small patch of slime he had cleared, his mind giving him the impression it was about the size of a finger, and examined the veritable ocean around him. He allowed himself a sigh of vexation at volunteering for this task, before carefully removing another piece of slime.

* * *

Joannis stepped into the mess hall, and frowned as she spotted most of the off duty crew and specialist team gathered around the middle table, loudly cheering and yelling. It almost sounded like they were watching a fight, but the circle wasn't big enough. She growled quietly to herself as she approached the table, and stopped right behind the crowd, and simply began projecting disapproval. The two crew men in front of her immediately turned, their faces going from exerburant to pale as they quickly got of the Commander's way, revealing the scene in front of her. The one of the crew members suddenly remembered protocol. "Room, attention!"

Everyone snapped to attention, as she looked over the table, seeing Ashley trying to arm wrestle an unimpressed Wrex. Jaclyn was standing immediately behind Ashley, who was struggling to stand as Wrex wasn't letting go of her hand. "Elbow comes up, you forfeit human."

Ashley gave him a glare before yanking her hand free, and belatedly standing up. Joannis looked around the room, before turning to her impudently grinning twin. "XO, what is going on here?"

She spotted several faces relaxing slightly as Jaclyn gave a smirk. "Morale building exercise, ma'am."

Joannis gave her twin a flat stare for a moment, before shaking her head in amusement. "Jaclyn, with me. Everyone else, carry on."

The twins walked away from the group as everyone returned to their current education, Wrex's voice thundering over the slowly rising mutter. "You lost, either move or pay up and you can try again."

Joannis rolled her eyes as she grabbed a MRE from the storage cabinet, before heading for one of the tables in the corner. She waited for Jaclyn to join her before raising an eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter and tilting her head slightly to the table. Jaclyn smirked. "Wrex was feeling punchy, so I asked the marines if they thought they could out muscle a krogan. A couple of the new guys wanted to try actually fighting him, but I talked them down to arm wrestling. Ashley was the first to sit down. They had been going for nearly thirty seconds when you came down."

Joannis looked over at the knot of people, unable to see what was going on, when one of the marines suddenly spoke up. "Push him back, Williams, for the Systems Alliance. And for Great JUSTICE!"

Ashley's voice was strained as she snarled back, "Marco, shut the hell up."

Wrex's low, rumbling laughter pierced the yelling of the crowd. "Come on human, at least make me try a little."

Jaclyn nodded to the group, dropping her voice slightly. "Good thing tomorrow we arrive at the destination. When do you want to brief the ground team?"

Joannis shook her head slightly. "After we get scans. I want minimal chance to have something go wrong, hence why all outgoing comms are blocked. At most we get to hit two, maybe three bases if we move fast enough. Everyone but Arlas will be going, so I am not concerned about what we will find on the ground."

Jaclyn's head twisted slightly, and Joannis stopped talking, her twin having spotted someone coming up behind her. How she knew who was coming up behind her was difficult to explain, but she knew one was trusted, the other wasn't, and they were related somehow. It wasn't until Vasir sat at the opposite end of the table and Liara at the middle that she realized why her twin had stopped and given her the reaction she had. She glanced at Liara, and then Vasir. "Spectre, Liara, not joining the fun?"

Vasir laughed. "If Wrex needs to beat on some meatheads for fun, I am not going to get in his way. Though I am tempted to come on the next mission if he is around. Been a while since me and him were on the same side."

The Twins both turned and looked at the newest Spectre on board, but before they could ask for more information, Liara spoke up. "Any news on my mother yet?"

Vasir snorted, her expression twisting slightly. "Nope. He left the room for fours hours after the two eldar modified it, went back in, chased me out, and that was the last I know. Nothing from the tech installed in the room to monitor a prisoner has worked since they covered it with their shit, and I haven't gotten anything out of the room since he went in. Whatever that crap they coated the walls with is, it blocks all signals in and out."

Jaclyn hummed to herself, letting Joannis nod. "He causes it Wraithbone, and it is what his people make their weapons and vehicles from. Apparently they make almost everything from it. So its sturdy, versatile, and blocks electronics as well? Small wonder they use it so much."

Liara started to open her mouth, when the lift suddenly dinged. Wrex had finally finished his bout with Ashley, so the crew were quieter, but the elevator seemed almost to strip the emotions out of the air. Then the doors opened, and Arlas staggered out of the lift.

His appearance was shocking, most of the time he looked like he hadn't done anything but sit around all day. Now he looked like he had fought the entire First Contact war by himself. He was breathing slowly and heavily, his hair was unbound in a snarled weave of darkness, but the worst was his eyes, nearly feral. He looked around the room, before visibly dismissing them all and making his way slowly toward the food counter, like every step took his full concentration to do so without falling over.

It wasn't until Joannis realized his steps were slowing that she understood what he was doing. _Putting on a front for the mon-keigh. His pride probably won't let him show more weakness than he already has, even if it ends up killing him._ She started to stand up, but Jaclyn was already on her feet. "Everyone out, NOW!"

Joannis quietly thanked whatever god or gods were listening that her twin was just as good as her at putting things together, and turned to Liara. "Liara, get a couple of those meal packs ready for him."

She turned back to see most of the crew dispersing, as Liara moved to the food counter to get a few meals packs out, having to check several different drawers before finally finding more than one. She pulled out three from three different storage drawers, before setting to work on preparing them. Arlas slowly nodded, before moving to the nearest table, and collapsing onto the bench. The only one in the room other than the spectres and Liara was Wrex, who gave them a stare that challenged them to try and get him out.

Joannis stopped at the food counter to get a large glass of water and the first meal from Liara, before placing the two in front of Arlas. The Eldar gave her a terse nod, before grabbing the drink and draining the entire glass, and then offering it back. His breathing was still deep and labored, but he was no longer looking like he was about to fall over. Arlas got two more glasses of water before starting on the meal in front of him, getting halfway through it before he started eating like he was simply starving instead of had not had a meal in a week.

He finished the first meal, and accepted the second one from Liara with a barely perceptible nod, before turning to the four others in the room. "I presume you wish an explanation?"

Joannis leaned over and put a hand on Vasir's shoulder, preventing the asari Spectre from making a sarcastic comment. Vasir instead glared at Joannis, before heading over to the food counter, letting the others answer. Liara spoke up first. "Please."

"I have completed the initial examination, and must say her condition is… unusual. Your languages lack words for what is wrong with her, but I have made some progress, don't appear to have caused further harm, and will be checking her for further changes after I get actual sleep instead of simple rest."

He paused, noting everyone giving him incredulous stares, before sighing. "Well, the asari might have words, but I don't know them."

Vasir spoke up. "So what was that about sleep instead of rest?"

The older asari glanced down at the counter before frowning at the packages that had held the two Liara had handed him, flipping them over while the the others watched Arlas. "Eldar meditate an hour or two a day. We only need to sleep once a week or after a particular strenuous endeavor. This counts as one. Was there anything else?"

Vasir looked up from the two sets of packing she was looking at. "Well, Liara there gave you a levo and a dextro ration set, and you ate both. Wondering when you are going to start showing a reaction."

Everyone in the room except Arlas turned to stare at the asari Spectre, ignoring the dark blush spreading across Liara's face, until the sound of Arlas taking a deliberately noisy bite made them all turn back to him. Joannis didn't try raising her voice like her sister, or physically trying to stop him like Liara did. She did wince when Liara suddenly got grabbed by the wrist and wrenched aside by the Eldar, though he caught her with his leg, cushioning her fall to the floor. Joannis made a note to teach her how to fall properly later. She silenced her twin with a touch to her shoulder, before waiting for Arlas to turn back to her. "So your people can eat both levo- and dextro-amino foods without getting sick? That is… Well, not impossible, but exceedingly improbable."

Arlas rolled his eyes as some of his old arrogance started coming back. "What are those?"

It took the four of them nearly a quarter of an hour to explain the differences between the two types of amino acid proteins, and that was because it took most of that time to convince him they weren't trying to prank him. Arlas then asked how long it took before someone showed a reaction. As no one immediately answered him, he let his smirk grow. "As I thought. Rapidly is the answer, and I am not. Your failings and limitations are not mine. I have survived off mud for a month, so your inability to eat is not my concern."

He finished his meal, before standing up and heading for the food counter. As he prepared another meal for himself, Vasir looked up from her omnitool and meal. "So you normally only sleep… what? Once every week or so?"

Arlas shrugged eloquently, finishing preparing the meal and heading back to his table. He quickly worked through his meal, ignoring the glare from the asari Spectre. "Are you going to answer?"

Arlas took the last bite, before gathering his food trays and putting them in the appropriate disposal slots. "No."

Joannis watched him leave with slow and almost casual steps, but noticed that he waited for the elevator rather than taking the emergency ladder. She glanced at her twin, saw Jaclyn looking back at her and knew she had noticed as well. Noting Vasir's scowl, she chuckled softly. "That is just Arlas. Are you going to be fielding with us, or just staying on the ship?"

Vasir shrugged. "If you think you need me, I can always use some more exercise. Though I have little idea what you are after."

"I will brief everyone once we get there and get the information."

* * *

Joannis looked up from the sensor station, glancing at Ashley on the guns and Kaidan in the driver's seat. The ride was much smoother than when she drove, but also not nearly as fast, though he had done a sterling job of handling the descent into Binthu's atmosphere.

Done checking the mako's status she turned back to the others. "Pay attention people. The reason we waited so long for the briefing is because we are going after a terrorist organization called Cerberus. Two weeks ago someone tried to assassinate the human minister of defense. Intelligence has tentatively identified the organization, and we are going after an outpost in retaliation. With any luck, we will get inside fast enough to get more information on assets and other locations, but at very least we'll deny them the ability to use this planet as a resupply point."

Joannis tapped her omnitool twice, sending everyone a file before continuing her briefing. "The scans we did from orbit reveal the outpost is tiny, one hanger on each end, each attached to a supply room, and from the supply room a tunnel leads to the middle room. There is a third corridor leading from the middle room, but without doing a deep penetrative scan, we can't tell more than it exists. We suspect it is an emergency evac tunnel, but our main goal is the retrieval of information and the destruction of the outpost. The Normandy can shoot down anything or anyone that tries to run."

She glanced back at Kaidan, and then at the sensor station she was sitting at. "Kaidan and Ashley will be setting up on the far side of the base in the Mako after dropping us off, to prevent them from trying to run that way. Everyone else will be on the entry team. We aren't hunting for prisoners, but if one of the personnel does surrender, accept it. But I want the entire team coming back to the Normandy alive."

Kaidan spoke up from the driver's seat. "Two minutes out at our current speed, ma'am."

Jaclyn nodded from her seat by the door. "You heard the commander. Last minute checks, lock and load people."

* * *

Arlas finished synchronizing with his patient, and examined the mental space he found himself. Before it had seemed to be a sea of oil and ooze, even after he had carefully cleansed small sections of the ooze, only to find more beneath it. His initial goal had been to get below the ooze, see what remained of the mind under the contamination, but that changed as he spotted something different.

The deepest 'hole' he had excised now had a small stream of what his mind translated as water coming from it. He directed his mind to the difference, examining it, before carefully brushing against it.

 _He could hear the sound of soft fabric rustling as he walked out of a doorway, pausing to look around before noting a small child at the base of a tree, wielding a small shovel. Several pieces of wood and metal were embedded in the soil, and a notebook rested beside a pile of exhumed dirt. He felt a surge of annoyance and exasperation, before striding forward, ignoring several asari in black armored leather quickly moving to the edges of the garden as he strode to the child. "Liara T'Soni, what do you think you are doing?"_

 _His voice was surprisingly soft and husky, and the child turned, revealing a much younger Liara. Her eyes were bright, though he could see some confusion on her face. "Mater, digging for artifacts."_

 _One of the guards made a small noise that might have been a hastily strangled laugh as the child looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes._

He ripped himself out of the memory, surprised at how easily it had drawn him in. Taking a moment to settle his mind, he moved away from the freed memory. It would either widen the gap itself without his help, showing how fast her mind could repair itself, or the memory would be resealed, showing how fast the 'contamination' worked. Either way, this area would be the control for his work.

* * *

"My lord, sensors are detecting an unknown vehicle, a minute out. The cognitor is predicting their path will bring them close enough to get a visual on the south hangar."

The large figure in the command room stalked over to the sensor tech, frowning as he looked at the stream of data with an unpracticed eye. "Who?"

The tech stayed focused on the screen, watching the lines of data scroll past. "Unknown, my lord. Medium tank sized vehicle. Could be scavengers, we haven't detected anything coming through the system relay in the past month."

The large figured straightened, though stayed stooped to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling. "No. This is something else. Activate the defenses, report the incursion, and request orders from command. Then begin preparing to purge the base, and evacuate. I will handle stopping them if they get inside myself."

* * *

Joannis stopped at the hangar bay door, idly noting it was large enough to allow a quartet of shuttles to enter at the same time. "Tali, door."

The rest of the group covered the quarian as she checked the door for an interface port, before opening her omnitool. Joannis listened to her communicator, and finally heard the two beeps and a chime that meant that Kaidan was in position. After a moment, she glanced at the still working quarian. "What is the hold up?"

"Their cyber warfare defense is obscene. It is the hardest I have ever encountered outside of the geth. Almost got it..."

Another few seconds of tapping, and the doors started sliding open, but halted after only a couple meters, the glow of a decontamination field bright behind the gap. "Everyone in before they disable my override."

The entire group hastily got inside, the doors slowly grinding shut as Garrus squeezed through with a few soft curses. Once inside, Joannis took in the large but vacant hangar shrouded in darkness, only the group's lights providing any illumination. "Tali, stay here and get the doors ready to open again, and this time keep them open. Once that is done, see if you can start stripping data. Everyone else, move up."

* * *

In a small room, a large figure slowly but smoothly strapped on his armor, his voice softly echoing through the room. "What is your life? Honour. What is your fate? Duty. What is your fear? Failure. What is your reward? Salvation. What is your craft? Death. What is your pledge? Service."

Done attaching and adjusting the last piece of the carapace armor as he finished reciting his litanies, the figure grabbed his pistol and a short sword with serrated teeth, not bothering with the open helmet of the armor. He put the weapons on his belt, pausing only to glance at a massive suit of armor in the center of the room with a sigh. As he left the room, he grabbed some spare magazines for the pistol, and smiled softly to himself as he slid one home with a familiar click. "A time to train, a time to meditate, and a time to kill..."

As he left the room, he looked to a hideous amalgam of metal and flesh near the armor. "Prepare my main armor for transport."

* * *

Arlas glanced about at the 'hole in the mindscape he had cleansed of the contaminate. It was only as deep as his hand, but already two different streams of water, or memories, were seeping through the oil. As much as he wanted to not experience more of Benezia's life, he needed to know how intact her memories were. Judging by the first experience, she had either significant attachment to the first memory, or a well trained mind, for a mon-keigh.

He passed his 'hand' through the memory, and saw himself in a large room full of hundreds of asari with dozens of recording devices around the room. Some sort of stand was in front of him, and he was lecturing about something called siari, which talked about a universal conscious, and how death was a return to it. After a moment of listening to the lecture, which got surprisingly close to the truth about the Empyrium for a race that didn't know it existed, he backed out of the memory, and then her mind.

A glance at his omnitool showed he had been in her mind for nearly an hour. He stood up, done with his current session, and headed back to the hangar. He needed to check his equipment, and give Vasir a chance to put more toys in the room. He had to keep her amused somehow.

* * *

Joannis stared at the supply room, having expected it to be mostly empty. Instead, it was packed full of sealed crates, all in neat, orderly rows and stacks. Each was clearly labeled, though she didn't recognize the writing. Shaking her head, she gestured for the group to move up. The lighting was particularly bad in this area, and she was glad that she had ordered everyone to wear helmets. Everyone was in some of the most advanced personal armor in Citadel space, and the helmets had better sensors than some of the vehicles she had used.

The entire area looked deserted, but something was in here. She hadn't seen anything to confirm her feeling, but she could feel it. She looked down the row, her SMG in hand as she opened a private line to the individual with the best instincts in the group. "Wrex, you feel that?"

"Yeah, we're being hunted."

She nodded, even though Wrex was on point with his shotgun ready and couldn't see it. Right before the stack of crates next to him exploded outwards, a figure even taller than Wrex lunging through the falling crates to body check Wrex into the wall.

* * *

Arlas merged back into Benezia's mind, and took in the 'shallow sea' in front of him. He had only been out for a short break, but Vasir had found him and gotten annoying. Nothing had changed in the hour he had been gone, but he needed to get back to work to keep the children from being unhappy. His concentration was suddenly shattered as he heard the acting shipmaster Pressley over the ship comms. "All non-essential personnel, report to the hangar to assist with incoming casualties."

Arlas cursed as he snapped out of the mental link with Benezia, knowing when he had left he had accidentally done something, but it could wait until after he figured out how to disable the ship communicator in the room. He stepped out of the room, a quick glance showed he was alone in the hallway, but he suspected most of the crew that could help him were in the hangar. The elevator was even slower than normal, so once again the eldar availed himself to the emergency ladder, arriving in the hangar just as the mako rolled into the packed hangar. He frowned as he saw nearly half the crew, including Chakwas, but before he could find an engineer, the mako opened its troop bay door, and everyone started moving.

His first clue that something was off was when Wrex was loaded onto one of the medical gurneys, carrying a severed arm and leg, and a gaping chest wound making him cough and spit congealed blood and bits of lung. Next out was Liara, unconscious on her gurney, her abdomen armor shredded and held together by a clear substance he recognized as hardened medigel, and a helmet next to her, nearly cracked in half. Arlas recognized the wounds as what a chain sword would do, but it was Icivia's wound that caused him chills and diverted his path to the Twins. Icivia had portions of her armor blown out, and while she was able to walk with the support of two crew men, it was clear she was walking only because of pure will and spite; having been in that situation before himself, he could easily recognize it in another. But he had seen enough bolter wounds to recognize them without needing to ask.

He headed to the Twins, slowly getting out of the mako. "What happened?"

Joannis didn't speak, simply watching the crew members roll two of her team off to the medbay, with another waiting for free elevator space. Jaclyn responded as she gave her twin a worried glance. "They had an… unusual individual guarding the outpost. A moment."

She tapped her omnitool. "Joker, status on the enemy evac shuttle?"

"Ma'am, that 'shuttle' was a hundred meters long and scanned as more heavily armored than us; if that was a shuttle, the Normandy is too. Uh, I mean, it went to FTL before I could get a firing solution, ma'am."

Jaclyn sighed, before closing the communication channel, and brought up a video. "My visor camera recordings. I am most curious as to why they had a chainsword, which seems to be native to your universe."

Arlas watched the 'unknown' enemy body check Wrex into a wall, and then start taking the squad apart. It was taller than him, but it wasn't until he spotted the firearm they carried blowing through Icivia's shield to damage her shoulder arm that he identified them. The fact it was engaging the squad while fighting Wrex in melee only confirmed his conclusions. "Adeptus Astartes."

The two human and the asari Spectres glanced at him, and then at each other. "What did you say?"

He cursed himself, not realizing he had spoken. At least it had been in his native language. "I recognized the foe."

He watched the rest of the engagement; the single foe taking on what he suspected was one of the most competent teams in this universe, and winning. He recognized the weapons, a bolt pistol and chainsword, both unmodified standard; the armor, unpowered scout carapace armor; the tactics, a standard full assault pattern fury delta three; even the colors, the gold trim on white armor. It was an Emperor's Hounds Assault space marine in scouting armor. They must have hit the base fast enough the marine hadn't had time to get into his full armor. If he had been in the full armor, he knew the ground team wouldn't have come back at all. Done reviewing the footage, all forty one seconds of it, ending when Joannis had blazed in blue light before flinging the marine out of the storage room and then blocking the passage by detonating a massive singularity, he glanced at the twins with an amused smirk. "Congratulations, you are the first squad in this universe to fight against an Adeptus Astartes for longer than a half minute and not lose anyone. Very few eldar squads can make that claim for their first encounter."

"And what is an adeptus astartes? That sounds like some kind of cult."

Arlas chuckled, before nodding. "The Imperium of Man is what my people most often had to work around back in my home universe. It had a million worlds with a billion humans, and totaled more than hundreds of trillions of beings."

Vasir cut him off before he could keep going, giving him an unimpressed sneer. "Yeah, that is higher math right there. Clearly a species has to be really advanced to make that conclusion."

Arlas gave her a glare that should have blown her out the back of the ship. After a moment, Jaclyn tried to interrupt the ocular war of arrogance between the two. "Arlas, please continue."

"After the asari leaves."

Vasir left with a gesture and a stream of curses under her breath before Arlas continued. "While the Imperium has normal humans on their fleets and in their armies, the ones my people… 'respect' the most were Adaptus Astartes. They were genetically modified humans, carefully selected and trained and are comparable to an eldar, though focusing on resilience rather than agility. When they were our opponents, we found other ways than to fight directly. That you engaged one for more than half a minute and lost no one is… impressive."

Arlas would never admit that he was exaggerating, but the twin's were clearly needing some sort of morale boost after losing a third of their squad so quickly to a single opponent. "To that effect, I volunteer and suggest bringing Vasir on the next mission that might encounter that individual. I assume you got something after managing to disengage."

Jaclyn gestured Tali over. "Tali, you said you got something from their systems?"

Joannis snapped out of her shocked state to give the quarian a hug, seeing her still trying to get blood out of her suit. "Its alright Tali, we are all safe now."

It took the twins a moment to soothe the young quarian, before she was able to stop scrubbing her suit and focus. "I didn't get much, and I know I didn't get in. I was let in. All I got was information about a shipment that left here, and went to a nearby system. They shipped two hundred tons of titanium to this system."

Arlas frowned as he listened, confused about what space marines would need with that amount of material. It was too small to do anything serious with, unless they were just using it to patch damage to their armor. "Son of a bitch, they could build a company of tanks with that much metal."

Or he could be reminded that everything here was stupidly light and unarmored by the standards back home. He sighed, before looking at the map one of the twins had brought up. "How far is it?"

Jaclyn frowned. "Two days or so, the Columbia system. Doesn't say which planet, so we will have to hunt. Joker, contact command, and inform them..."

"Holy hell!"

Jaclyn stared at the communicator, before taking a long breath. "Joker?"

"One moment ma'am. We are reading a massive explosion on the planet."

The twins shared a glance, but before they could do more, the pilot spoke again. "Sorry ma'am, they must have activated some kind of self destruct. We are reading a nuclear explosion on the planet, at least a hundred megatons. I can send a report, but…"

Jaclyn sighed, letting Joannis reply. "Send the basic report, include the self destruct, and set a course for the Columbia system in this cluster. Arlas, when we get there, please accompany the ground team, I doubt any of the injured will be able to assist yet."

* * *

It took nearly another day after arriving to get a rough estimate of the location of the terrorist base, but once it had been located it was fairly clear it was both a recent construction and not big enough to contain the two hundred tons of titanium. In spite of being deliberately led to the system, the twins decided to take the Mako in anyway, once again making him question their sanity. Arlas had done similar things before, but always by himself, and he had always been cautious, especially when he didn't know what enemies were nearby.

But once again, he was sitting in the back of the human 'tank' as it rolled, bumped, flipped, and tumbled across the landscape, despite his previous oaths to avoid the vehicle. He was seriously considering using some of his melta charges on it when the Mako suddenly rocked, and the turret opened fire. After a moment of frantic movements by the vehicle, including several jumps, the mako suddenly rolled to a stop, and Joannis reported. "Alright, we have the base on the other side of the hill, but it has two heavy machine guns and one missile turret left. The mako is almost out of shields, so Arlas, Garrus, and Ashley out, you are going to be sniping the turrets to keep their shields drained. The leftmost machine gun should be nearly dead, but they hit far harder than they should, so keep your heads down. Vasir, get ready to engage once the turrets are down. Tali and Kaidan, see if you get the mako's shields to recharge faster."

Arlas slipped out through the back hatch, grateful to be out of the metal can, and moved to the ridge that protected the mako from the base. Garrus was right behind him, and Ashley was already crouched behind the hill, a barrage of small explosions on the other side of the ridge showing that she had already attacked the turrets. Arlas crouched behind the ridge, and pulled out his long rifle, enjoying the feel of his preferred eldar weapon in his hands, rather than the far heavier geth mockery. He activated his cloak, and glanced over the edge, noting the location of the three turrets, and the wreckage of a fourth.

Garrus set up a short ways from him, and fired on the more damaged heavy turret, causing both to track toward him, though the missile turret stayed inactive. He leveled his laser rifle, and fired at the missile turret, hitting it just under the heavy upper armor, aiming for the more delicate gearing that allowed it to transverse. "So, we really haven't had much a chance to talk, other than whenever we bump into each other in the hangar or the firing range."

Arlas glanced at the turian in disbelief, before turning back to the turret. "Focus on the enemy."

"So you can't fight and talk at the same time?"

The two turrets tracked across his position as Ashley fired, forcing him to duck until they focused on her position. "So eldar can't fight and talk, shame. I mean, we are both snipers, we could have swapped tricks, you could tell me the best way to kill whatever you had fought, I could tell you the best way to put down the threats we normally face. Though you seem to have 'shoot them in the head' down pretty well."

Arlas fired his rifle, placing a bolt in a seam of the armor, and blowing out a servo under it. The turret suddenly whirled to the side as half of the motors driving it suddenly ceased to function. "Focus, turian."

Before they could deal with the second machine gun turret, the three remaining turrets abruptly stopped firing, and retreated into their cases. As all three snipers watched, the exterior door suddenly opened, as if inviting them covered the new opening, while Arlas looked around for anything that might have gotten in position to flank them. Ashley contacted the mako. "Ma'am, we damaged one of the turrets, and then all three retreated into their cases, and the base door opened. Orders?"

After a moment, Jaclyn spoke. "We are coming to you, prepare to advance. Garrus, return to the mako, you are on driving if we need a rescue. Icivia is already on the guns."

A moment later he was joined by the Twins and Kaidan, the former he was glaring at. "Your idea for engaging an Adeptus Astartes is to bring fewer than the most amount of people you can?"

Joannis returned his glare evenly, before marching to the compound. "They are human centric, and from your universe. I am bringing humans or people very similar to humans in sealed armor, and the only person who can tell me if they are lying to try and improve their own position."

"And if they are doing this to get you into melee with more of the same being you encountered back on Binthu?"

"That one fled when confronted with biotics, hence why we have four of them, and Ashley has point. She is just going to delay them long enough for us to get to work."

Arlas didn't reply, simply spinning up his warp jump generator to make sure it worked, not bothering to comment on the holes in her plan. He glanced at the structure, before putting away his long rifle, and getting out his fusion gun and power blade. Not the best idea, getting into melee with an Astartes, but the building would force it. Assuming the guns didn't reactivate while they advanced.

They made it to the entrance without issue, the guns not popping out to try and perforate them, no aircraft tried to make a strafing run, no mines exploded beneath them. For Arlas, it was slightly surreal. It was entirely a codex defense, two turrets of machine gun and missile to defend an outpost, with mines in the approaches the turrets didn't cover. Though since the turrets didn't have a blind approach, he suspected there weren't any mines. But the chapter he suspected they were fighting did NOT blindly follow their precious Codex, realizing it was a guideline, not a hard set of rules the universe followed. While they would have done the suggested defense, they would have added something… 'extra,' depending on the commander and the resources available.

Arlas frowned as he watched the five others troop forward, before looking around. "Tali?"

Jaclyn answered as she stepped into the entrance with Ashley. "In the mako, running ECM from there through my and Joannis' suits."

Arlas shrugged and entered the building beside Joannis, not bothering to look behind him as the door closed. Everyone else glanced backwards, but he was too busy noticing the small room they were in, tall enough for an Astartes and big enough to hold half a squad at a time. And while the outer wall was as thick and resilient as he expected, the inner wall looked flimsy enough for him to punch through. He frowned, taking a position by the interior door while Kaidan worked with the airlock door. After a moment, Kaidan finally gave up. "External comms are down, and I can't get this door open."

Joannis sighed, before nodding to the door Arlas was covering. "Alright, let's move up. Arlas, open that door and then take rear guard. Ashley, take point, and don't die."

* * *

"Sir, they are entering the hall."

"Drop the first wall when they get halfway down it. Devastators, don't kill the humans yet. He wants a word with them first."

"The eldar?"

The first figure calculated odds and outcomes in the heartbeat, before answering. "No telling how much the xeno has wormed his way into their confidences. If he engages, kill him. If not… don't focus on him."

The last sentence was uttered as if it was painful, but the second figure simply nodded. "As you order, Brother-Sergeant. The Emperor's Will Be Done."

* * *

Arlas was the last in the hallway, when suddenly his danger sense yelled at him. It was an odd sense, one he hadn't ever experienced before, but he turned and dove back through the door regardless. He hadn't survived to his first millennia by ignoring his instincts, and as the wall to his right suddenly fell away from the group, he spotted three figures. Bright white armor with gold highlights wielding heavy bolters, though most concerning was the most decorated unit in the center of the five unit grouping wielding his on his shoulder. Arlas had never seen a heavy bolter like that, and that made it infinitely more dangerous in his mind. He almost didn't see the five space marines beside the Devastators, holding bolters, but they were positioned to physically cover their heavily armed comrades while not affecting their ability to retaliate.

As he finished his roll and slid into cover on the other side of the interior door, he spotted even more humans behind and to the sides of the marines, all of them wearing full body armor in white and gold and wielding equally familiar weapons. At least fifty humans were supporting the ten space marines he could see, and all of them were in good cover with lasguns, though they looked shorter and more blocky than the models he was used to seeing in the Imperial Guard.

All in all, it was enough firepower to make a squad of tanks pause, and most of it was aimed in his direction, despite his desperate dodge. He stayed in cover, having to rely on his 'team' to give him an idea what was going on. For a moment he only heard a confusing babble of mon-keigh voices, before one of them suddenly drowned out the others, clearly amplified by some sort of technology. " **System's humans, which is the xeno?** "

Joannis' reply was full of scorn. "I won't sell out my people."

There was silence for a moment, before the loud voice came back. " **All but the Spectre Twins, to the airlock.** "

Jaclyn's sneer was easily audible. "And what makes you think any of us are going to do what you say?"

Arlas winced at the sound of a discharging lasgun a couple seconds later, and he heard someone hit the ground, cursing sulfurously in Asari. " **Others out. Our leader wishes to talk to the Twins.** "

Joannis contacted him over his omnitool. "Arlas, recommendation?"

"Accept with their request; if they wanted us dead, they would kill us then move out to kill the tank. Taking out the ship would be difficult, but if they wanted to, they likely could find a way to do it. Possibly a ground based laser weapon, or maybe a ship, loitering cold nearby."

He could feel the glare she was giving her omnitool from where he was, but after a moment he heard her speak. "Fine, everyone out."

There was a pause, but after a moment he saw the rest of the squad, all he could see from the door without exposing himself, heading his way.

* * *

Joannis followed the hulking figure in front of her, aware of two more following her and her twin. The one in front and one of the ones behind her were carrying large two handed weapons that looked like unbalanced and blocky grenade launchers, and probably would be too heavy for her to lift. The last terrorist was carrying one of the hip mounted weapons, even bigger than the two the other escorts were carrying, and had a barrel big enough to almost fit her hand inside. The larger weapon also had a second nozzle under the first, with a hissing pilot light making it completely clear what it was for.

They had left the others heading for the entrance, before following their guide down a side path from the center room. The other humans and the 'astartes' warriors had left through a third passage. Her thoughts were interrupted as their leading escort stopped, and turned to them. " **Inside.** "

Jaclyn glanced back at the other two, before glaring at the speaker. "You the only one that can talk, or are they just shy?"

Joannis glared at her sister, fully aware that this was not the best time to be instigating a fight with their escorts if they were as powerful as Arlas had said, but the sudden chuckle from the massive figure in front her was not the response she expected. The huge figure simply jerked his head. " **Inside, little human. Pick your fights with beings you can win against.** "

Jaclyn made a comment in turian that didn't require translation, before stalking into the room. Joannis followed with a second look at the massive figure, reevaluating her impression of the massive figure from a being that could barely talk. Inside however, she found an empty room except for a large circle in the center of the room, but before either of them could react, the door behind them slid shut. Before either of them could react, the circle lit up with a soft blue glow, and began blinking slowly. After a glance, the Twins stepped into the circle, causing several projectors in the ceiling to begin scanning them.

A moment later, the projectors swung around, and began building an image, which quickly resolved into a standing blue human with close cropped hair, wearing a long coat and smoking a cigarette. He looked at the twins, before nodding slowly to them. "Commander Shepard and Commander Shepard. A pleasure."

Jaclyn looked him up and down, instinctively falling into her persona of 'bad twin' as she collapsed her helmet. "Hardly."

Joannis ignored her twin for the moment, focusing on the image before them. "So you are the Illusive Man in charge of Cerebus that we have heard so little about?"

She mentally slapped herself for asking such a stupid question, of course he would claim he was. She was surprised for the second time in as many minutes when he shrugged, before reaching out of range of his projector. "Illusive man? If that is what your leadership has decided to call me than I suppose so."

He pulled a tall-crowned, slightly conical, wide brimmed hat into view, adorned only with a symbol of a winged skull bisecting a stylized letter 'I.' " Though I much prefer the title 'The Inquisitive Man.'"

 _A/N - Dun dun DUUUUUUUN!_

 _For the fight at the Cerberus outpost, I couldn't write the fight so that it showed the unstoppable nature of the opponent even with his handicaps, so I tried a couple other things to… suggest how the fight went. Not entirely pleased with the result, but hey, past that point now._

 _The Emperor's Hounds Adeptus Astartes chapter are my custom space marine chapter, so you won't find any canonical information on them. For the fluff lovers, they are an offshoot of the Ultramarines. So smurfs, but not. Their gimmick is that they are less rigidly organized than most of the other offshoots, relying adaptation rather than blind adherence to the Codex. Also, they were added as a response to the poll about adding more W40k characters._

 _And finally without any other credible canonical sources, I am saying the Mako light Infantry Fighting Vehicle weighs in at 12 tons with its mass effect fields completely off. For comparison, a modern fighting IFV weighs about 15 tons. With the fields fully on, somewhere between 3 and 4 tons._

 _As for the delays, blame my muse. She wants to work on the next story, not finish this one. However I will not be denied!_


	33. Meeting the Terrorists

**Chapter 31 - Meeting the Terrorists**

' _I will destroy you!' - Every enemy in Mass Effect. Every. One. EVERY GODDAMNED ONE! Even the geth, husks and rachni, though you can't understand them._

Joannis stared at the hologram of the second most hated human in the galaxy. He led a known terrorist group that espoused assassinations, sabotage, kidnappings; anything and everything was acceptable as long as it advanced humans to the pinnacle of the galaxy. She had to be careful in her handling of the situation, as she was standing in a base filled with fanatics outfitted with the most advanced technology she had ever encountered, including handheld laser weapons. The base contained at least ten soldiers so genetically modified she was fairly certain they didn't actually count as humans anymore and only one of them had been needed to take her squad apart back on Binthu. And the leader had just revealed enough about himself that getting out with the information was her primary concern; so she was concerned about keeping him from deciding her and her twin were better off dead, instead of clearly trying to get something from them.

"That hat is the most fucking stupid and retarded thing I have had to deal with this week. And I had to deal with a spat between an eldar and an asari."

Joannis couldn't quite stop herself from rolling her eyes as she shot her twin a look, conveying her lack of amusement at her twin's flippant response to their situation. Thankfully, the Inquisitive Man only gave Jaclyn a raised eyebrow and a tolerant smile. "And again, the Eldar fail as an ally."

Joannis kept herself from reacting, but she could feel her twin failing. The hologram simply gave another small smile, before nodding. "He has not told you any more than he has to to get you to react as he wants. Otherwise, you would have had a much more… informed reaction. Sadly, we lack the time to fully educate you. You have other things you need to be doing."

Jaclyn sneered. "Take the word of an arrogant alien who openly admits to looking down on us or a human supremacist who wants me to sell out my squad. Huh, hard choice there, how long do I get to consider it?"

"As long as you need. I need to talk to your twin, not you."

The hologram turned its eyes from her offended twin, and met hers. "Lieutenant Commander Joannis Shepard, Spectre. I will not bother listing the rest of your titles, as those two are the ones you let define you."

She nodded slightly to the hologram, conceding his point, as her rank and Spectre status were the two she was most proud of. "And yet you have me at a disadvantage, unless you name is Inquisitive."

He hummed at her sally, before shaking his head. "It is not advantageous for me to reveal too much about myself just yet. However, I believe we could come to a mutually beneficial understanding. In spite of what you have heard about my organization, we are not your enemy."

"You took a pot shot at the Defense Minister of the Systems Alliance. You certainly are not an ally of mine."

He smiled, before shaking his head. "No, but there is a difference between an accomplice, an affiliate, and an adversary."

She interrupted him. "Nice alliteration. Did you plan that line or come up with off the cuff?"

"Bit of both, I figured you would appreciate it. As I was saying, Cerberus need not be your enemy. I doubt I can convince you of the sanctity of our ideology in the time I have, as you have been indoctrinated by your Alliance for far too long, but perhaps we can come to an agreement?"

Jaclyn sneered at the hologram. "You tried to shoot the Minister of Defense. I agree to not execute you on the spot if you surrender right now."

Joannis glared at her twin. "Jaclyn, outside. Now."

She ignored her twin's shock, waiting for her to leave before speaking again. "What agreement did you have in mind?"

"Nothing formal; I am not so foolish as to expect that. An exchange of information, on the other hand?. Captain Anderson is a fine officer, and as cunning a defender of mankind as one can ask for, but he is NOT an investigator, nor is he as skilled in information analysis. My organization, however, is more than fully capable of providing the needed tools."

"And you are, of course, doing this out the goodness of your heart and purely altruistic motives, no doubt."

"Of course. I am trying to protect the most precious resource in the galaxy, just like you. Our race. I am simply willing to go further than you."

"To the point where everyone thinks we are monsters. You do more damage to us than almost any other organization in the galaxy, including those Terra Firma party dumbasses. They don't go around shooting random aliens."

"Surely you do not think we go around attacking random xeno vessels, or schools, or gatherings? The actions we perform are against those trying to harm humanity through more clandestine means that we currently have little defense against. The meeting between the Defense Minister and the Salarians was to allow the Salarians to put another listening program in our systems, and the deal was simply their way of getting inside to do it. I have no desire to see Minister Kreiggeory replaced, in spite of his willingness to work with xenos. While his current successor has a far more appropriate attitude toward xenos, he lacks the foresight to properly control his actions, and more importantly, the reactions of others."

Joannis shook her head at him. "And yet you tried to shoot the Defense Minister. Your words and actions are not lining up."

The Inquisitive Man gave her a tight smile. "My ally placed her shot exactly where she was ordered to. I needed to get your attention. After all, who do you think tipped off the Alliance to the Binthu outpost's location? And who let your quarian ally through long enough to get this outpost's location? You were directed here, for this conversation."

She stared at him, unable to refute his claims without sounding petulant or childish, so she simply nodded. "You mentioned an agreement?"

He took a pull from his cigarette, before answering. "As much as the influence of xenos on humanity is concerning, a new threat is looming. We, humanity, need information, as much and as fast as possible. My agreement is information exchanging concerning the Reapers. Regardless of our thoughts about each other, extinction is enough of a threat to mandate bringing every resource to bear to ensure our survival. If that means allying with the xenos, so be it. I will not let pride kill my race."

He reached off screen to pull into view a glass of something, likely alcohol considering how he only took small sips and seemed to savor each one, letting her consider his offer. After a moment, she finally spoke. "And what do you get out of this? All I am seeing is questionable worth for negative results. You get to promote that you have been endorsed by the first human Spectres, getting legitimacy and validation of your views, which I do not agree with, and you don't actually have to produce anything."

He stared at her for a moment, before replying. "While I normally approve of such prudence, I do wish you would turn it to those that would, for all intents and purposes, enslave us. How about this, if we find anything related to the Reapers that you can deal with, we will send it to you."

"And how do you plan to get that information to me? I doubt SIA would take kindly to me getting emails from Cerberus saying the Salarians have found a Reaper, go blow it up."

The Inquisitive Man's mouth twitched in what might have been amusement. "That probably would cause more problems than it would solve, yes."

He took another sip from his glass, before continuing. "Emails from Hislop Corporation. They will mention a Tim, in all capital letters, requesting you get the information, before giving you the information about the Reapers. Is that acceptable?"

She frowned as the name seemed to be familiar to her, before slowly nodding. She could figure it out later. "Fine, not like I can exactly refuse."

He gave her a patronizing smile that made her want to hunt him down and gut him as her sister suggested, but she kept her thoughts to herself. "Care to share where you are heading next? I suggest Terra Nova."

As she opened her mouth to respond, he interrupted her, glancing at something out of range of the hologram again. "With haste. And stealth. Consider the tip a gesture of good will. Also, my forces have already evacuated, so you may leave on your own time. Pleasure meeting you, Commander Shepard. I do hope our next meeting is less confrontational."

The hologram dispersed before she could reply, leaving her to make her way back to the entrance of the empty base.

* * *

Four days later, the Normandy was quietly loitering in the Asgard system of the Exodus cluster, listening to the local communications. They had arrived in the system two days after leaving the Cerberus base, and so far nothing had happened. Jaclyn had been less than pleased about the forced wait, but with a third of the their ground team either in or having recently left the medical bay, hunting Saren was being put on hold for the moment. The lack of leads had also enforced Joannis' decision to wait.

The Spectre was reviewing Doctor Chakwas' latest report on the injured, Vasir already released after a quick check, the Cerberus laser weapon failing to penetrate her armor, though it had done significant damage to the chest plate. Joannis was dreading the Council review of that mission, especially if the 'tip' turned out to be a bust. The sudden up-spike in batarian raids in the nearby systems was a good indication that something could be planned, however. As of three hours earlier, they were the only SA ship in the system, the only other ships either being freighters or merchants, or the two local police cutters lingering around Terra Nova.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the report. Wrex was responding well to the surgery and cloned tissue, and was staying in the medbay only because of Doctor Chakwas' threats, though he should get released in a day or so if only to keep him from breaking something; the legendary krogan regeneration reacting well when enhanced by modern medicine. Liara had regained consciousness, but suffered from headaches, vertigo, and double vision, and was going to stay in the medbay until the concussion had passed. Icivia had been released earlier that day, the weapon used by the Astartes had been deflected by her shields and armor, but only barely, and her injuries had been mostly light shrapnel and superficial cuts to her shoulder and chest.

Done reviewing the wounded, she turned her attention to a report from Vasir on Benezia. Joannis rolled her eyes as she parsed out the insults directed at Arlas, who refused to file reports. After a moment, she put the 'report' down and looked at Lieutenant Pressley. "Pressly, I am heading down to talk to Arlas. You have deck until I get back."

She nodded absently at Pressly's response as she headed down to elevator. A minute later, she stepped out of the elevator, pausing as she saw Tali getting up off the floor, Arlas standing nearby holding two holoblades. "And that is why you must always be in control of yourself."

Tali grumbled something as she finished standing, glaring at the eldar. "Then slow down! I can barely follow your movements."

Arlas turned off one of the blades, before offering the hilt to the quarian. "An enemy isn't going to slow down because you asked. You wanted my assistance in learning to use a blade, so you will learn as an eldar does. We train as we fight."

"Learning, yes. Getting beaten without actually teaching anything, no."

Arlas sighed, before shaking his head. "If you put half the effort into your blade you do into complaining, you would be an expert. Lioness."

Tali tiled her head in confusion, but Joannis was ready and waiting for an opening. "Arlas, I got Vasir's report about your progress on Benezia, and was hoping you could elaborate. Specifically on her progress, not Vasir's ability to curse at you."

Arlas' mouth twitched upwards for a brief moment, before shaking his head. "I doubt your language has the words I need."

Joannis crossed her arms, not amused by his attitude. "Try."

He stared before singing at her for a moment. After a moment, Joannis sighed. "In english, please."

He stared at her for a moment. "Her mind is coated in something by an ancient robot, which enforces its control of her. This leaves out a significant amount of detail and subtly of the situation, but it conveys the basics. I have made some progress, but there is much to do yet."

"So, any idea how much longer you will require?"

"Could be a week, could be years."

His sword suddenly swung around, blocking Tali's strike at his back, before cutting at her arm, then reforming the holoblade and stabbing her in the faceplate. "Back attacks work only if the target is distracted or unaware. Good thought though."

He turned back to Joannis as Tali fell backwards, ignoring the quarian cursing in her own language at him. "What does it matter how long I take?"

Joannis walked around him to help Tali stand up. "I was wondering when you would be ready for ground duties again?"

He raised an eyebrow, before deactivating his holoblade and collecting Tali's dropped one. "I suppose I can help with a mission, if you so desperately need the help. What do you require?"

Joannis sighed, before running a hand through her hair. "Nothing yet, but we might…"

Her omnitool buzzed, interrupting her as Pressley contacted her. "Ma'am, three large shuttles were just detected in the system, outside the normal areas for traffic. I doubt the locals have seen them, they appear to be heavily armed, armored and have some method to reduce their heat signatures. They are about a light minutes out from and burning for asteroid X57."

She stared at her omnitool for a moment, before nodding. "Arlas, get ready. I want your lander for this one. Pressley, did they jump in? If not, why didn't we see them earlier?"

"Ma'am we didn't detect a FTL flare on the sensors. They must have been drifting cold, likely jumped in earlier and we detected their engines heating up."

She made it to the elevator, and started up. "How long until we get to the asteroid?"

"About an hour ma'am. They have a half hour lead on us, unless we want to do an in system FTL jump."

She killed her omnitool as she entered the CiC of the Normandy, glancing at the plot. She replaced Pressley on the command stand, staring at the indicator for the shuttles. "Joker, head to asteroid X57, max speed while stealthed."

Joker was carefully leveraging himself in the chair, having been off duty when Pressley had called him back to the pilot station. "Aye ma'am, let the cripple get back in his chair."

A few _sotto_ curses could be heard before Joker spoke again. "Alright, in the chair, breaking our orbit of one of Borr's infinite dwarf moons. Time to target is twenty five minutes at max speed under stealth."

"Good, Joker. Pressley, you have the deck."

She activated her omnitool, linking to the ship paging system. "All ground team specialists cleared for combat, arm and armor up, then meet in the hangar."

* * *

Jaclyn sat in the gunner seat of the Mako, and did her best to ignore her twin in the driver seat. The 'briefing' had been worse than useless, they didn't know anything, but Jo had still mobilized everyone capable of fighting. Hell, she was even having the Normandy stay nearby, ready to land the reinforced marine compliment if they called. They didn't even know something was wrong, SAI hadn't had any indications something was going to happen when queried. All they had to go on was some terrorist's vague suggestion and a slight up-swing of possible raiding vessels moving through the relays, and now they had three large shuttles in the area. Whoop-dee-doo.

Her sister finished talking, and turned her attention back to the Mako, causing the front third of the landing craft to descend into brooding silence. Then her sister opened a comm line between them. "You are still angry."

Jaclyn cut the comm line with a practiced twist of her wrist, not wanting to talk to her twin. Unfortunately, her sister had always been better at electronics than her, and the line comm line quickly reopened. "Yep, and still childish too. Let's get this out of the way before we get into combat, and you charge some krogan again out of pure anger."

Jaclyn snarled something unrepeatable and unintelligible into her microphone, before crossing her arms. "He was a fucking terrorist, and you believed every word he said? Damn right I am pissed at you, especially since you sent me out of the room."

"You were listening through my helm the whole time once you were out."

"I should have been in there!"

"You were deliberately antagonizing an unknown, who commanded at a minimum almost a dozen super soldiers, one of which was caught out of his armor and yet still beat us. There were ten in the base, including the three that escorted us."

"He wasn't going to do anything to hurt us, he went through too much effort to talk to us."

"And he was a human supremacist, and we had two non-humans in the base with us. Assuming he didn't decide to just take out the others. You never think of the consequences of your actions."

"Because you always allow the potential consequences to paralyze you! He is a terrorist, and we do not need his help."

"The Reapers are going to kill everyone, we need all the help we can get. Pride won't stop an extinction, Jac."

"Better than being slaves. We saw that on Mindior."

Their argument was interrupted by Pressley contacting both of them, and they linked him to both groups. "Ma'am, the shuttles just landed. Enhanced scans show at least fifty individuals, not counting the quadrupeds."

Jaclyn cut him off. "Clarify, quadrupeds?"

"Probably varren in sealed armor, ma'am, these are NOT some security force or extra engineers. They have split into five groups, a group of eight and four quadrupeds moving to the fusion torches two and three each, two groups of four heading off to isolated buildings, and the remaining twenty six and twelve quadrupeds are heading for the building that functions as a headquarters for the whole place, as well as controlling fusion torch one. They are carrying several large objects with them, but without an active scan, I can't tell you more about whatever those cases are."

Jaclyn was grateful her twin didn't tend toward gloating, otherwise she would seriously consider heading to the eldar's lander. "Right, Joker get us in close and drop the mako near torch three, then land the marines near torch two. Arlas, you are going after the two small groups, then meeting to take out the group for torch one. Oh, and actually land, don't just strafe them, I need prisoners. Pressley, get in contact with the people on the asteroid, advise them about the raiders and to stay calm, seal the buildings and seek cover. ETA?"

"Ten minutes out ma'am, one of the groups will get to fusion torch three and the big group will get to the headquarters before we can land. We should catch the others out in the open."

Jaclyn didn't speak, letting her twin handle this. "Good. Once the marines deal with their group, leave a squad to secure that torch, then have the Normandy relocate the other two squads to the shuttles. I want them captured intact if possible."

Arlas cut in. "Or you could have me, the lander, and the wraithguard secure them. We aren't going to show up on their sensors, and you can use them still having an apparent exit as a negotiation point if needed."

Jaclyn glanced at her twin's back, but her twin wasn't paying attention to her. "Arlas, send your passengers over to the Mako, they will help us. You can just annihilate the groups going for the isolated buildings, but don't use the big guns. They will detect the explosions. Pressley, have the marines send a squad to hold the second torch once we clear it. Alright people, lets do this."

* * *

Arlas finished setting up, before relaxing and checking everyone. Yol'Pvera had landed, resting on the other side of a nearby hill, and Kap'Eiyl was waiting with the shuriken cannon in the center of the three shuttles. He was on different hill, where he could see the most direct path between the shuttles and the first engine.

The mission had been delightfully dull and boring. He had taken out the two small patrols in a single pass, using the scatter laser turret, not even bothering to slow down. He knew they hadn't gotten a warning off about his vessel. Over the next quarter hour, he had listened to the mon-keigh hit the other locations. Both of the battles for the second and third engines had gone acceptably, the marines overwhelming the small attacker squad, outnumbering them nearly three to one, and yet had still taken several wounds from the animals accompanying them. Shepard's team had done better, despite actually being outnumbered slightly, but had pushed through the enemy force without injuries.

Then Shepard's team had moved to the first engine on this asteroid, and things had gone sideways. In spite of the warning, the attackers had managed to get into the attached building, and had captured a handful of locals. The others had gotten inside before things had gone too badly, but the leader had, after a brief firefight, threatened to blow up the building if his demands weren't met. The humans and attackers, identified as batarians, had then gotten into an argument about what the Twins would and wouldn't allow. It was all very rousing, and inspirational, and completely predictable.

After listening to the bombastic performances of the two sets of mon-keigh, eventually one of the Shepards contacted him directly. "Arlas, they are leaving. We have prisoners already, and the locals are safe."

He smirked, before shouldering his rifle. * _Kap'Eiyl, Yol'Pvera, the targets are coming. No survivors needed. All Asuryani, advance to contact._ *

He checked the melta packs on the shuttles, nestled between the engines, and meant to detonate if the engines activated, before following the wraithguard up the path. Yol'Pvera looped off to side, to flank the batarian raiders. They weren't going to be subtle, there wasn't a need for it.


	34. Virmire

**Chapter 32 - Virmire**

' _And when it all goes sideways, when it all goes wrong, when it all goes to the Warp, I just want you to remember one thing. By Khaine's gore drenched sword, I told you it would.' - Ranger Arlas_

Arlas stared at the relay from behind the pilot's station, cursing himself in the privacy of his own head. Two useless, wasted weeks hunting down geth outposts and bases, and all he had to show for it was the growing derision from his fellow eldar. His omnitool chimed, interrupting his thoughts. "Arlas, the asari vessel for Benezia and Vasir is here. We are moving her down to the hangar. They have requested your presence."

Arlas sighed in the privacy of his helmet, before turning and heading to the hangar. He had no idea why Vasir had interrupted him after he had informed the twins that he had finished removing the majority of the mental infection, and would start working on ensuring the memories were intact. Even worse, she had forbidden him from trying to assist Benezia again.

He had ignored the asari's order, of course, using his jump pack to revisit the older asari and link his mind with hers. He had been curious if she could continue healing on her own if provided instructions, and to see if he could find out what Benezia knew that was so concerning to Vasir. She had only forbidden his interaction when he had mentioned sharing thoughts. All he had seen was several intimate moments involving another asari, a couple memories with a infant or child asari, one of repose in front of a statue of a green asari, a handful of battlefields, a memory of standing in front of a covered and still form surrounded by other asari and a handful of salarians, and a memory of meeting with Saren. Nothing of real importance before his link with Benezia had been interrupted by Vasir bursting in, and while he had not been impressed by her threats, she had taken to spending all her time in the room with the older asari. The twins hadn't gotten involved beyond informing him that he was no longer required to assist the asari, despite Liara's desperate pleas.

The eldar roused himself from his contemplations as he arrived at the hangar, looking over the interior. The lander was in its usual spot off to his left, the human landing vehicle off to the right, and a cleared area in the center was occupied by Joannis, Chakwas and Vasir, with Benezia resting on a floating bed in the center of the group. As the door opened, Vasir looked up, her expression tightening as she moved to place herself between him and Benezia, one hand on her shotgun. Joannis glanced at him, her expression neutral but her emotions shifted to pleased before moving back to annoyed. Chakwas didn't bother noticing his presence, too busy inputting data on the datapad she carried.

Arlas looked around the bay, debating simply leaving, but was stopped as an alarm klaxon began blaring. A moment later the hangar opened, and a large, ornate shuttle floated into the bay. It was a rounded ovaloid with a flat bottom and no obvious thrusters, unlike the box with thrusters the humans and turians used. It had barely touched the ground before the side hatch opened, and a half dozen black leather clad asari jumped out, their only decorations being a single shoulder pad of green and gold on their left shoulders. Arlas ignored the guards, and focused on the real problem, the older asari stepping out of the shuttle after her guards had pronounced it clear, ignoring the feeling of indignation from the humans and the disdain from the asari spectre.

The asari was clearly a matriarch, and Arlas took a moment to examine the second example of 'prime' asari power. She was thin and her body gaunt, almost without an ounce of unnecessary body weight, like some inner fire had burned away everything that she did not approve of. Her eyes were a brilliant lavender, and he might have even been impressed to see an asari that didn't look like a Slaanesh follower if she wasn't putting off so much disdain he almost mistook it for the biotic barrier she kept wrapped around her. She looked over the hangar, her eyes flickering to the three spectres, then to Chakwas and Benezia, before finally scanning the rest of the hangar. "Where is the eldar?"

Arlas finished typing a request on his omnitool and sent it to Tali, before stepping out from around the weapon workbench. He was in his tabard and carrying his pistol and sword today, and strode up to the asari. He looked at the matriarch for a moment, then at her guards, then deliberately turned his back on her to address Vasir. "You said they were sending a matriarch to pick up Benezia."

Vasir's mouth twitched in amusement, before she tilted her head behind him to the fuming asari. Arlas glanced back at her, letting himself frown slightly, before turning back. "I said matriarch, not uncivilized, spoiled child."

There was an impressive clatter of weapons as the six guards leveled their weapons at him, and a less obvious hiss and whine as Yol'Pvera activated and deployed her scatter laser turret, orienting it to point at the clustered guards. Arlas ignored it all, focusing on Vasir, who still had some shreds of respect from him; or more accurately, he still saw some uses for her despite her best attempts to get him to shoot her. He kept talking like he had not heard anything behind him. "Clearly she is not, because it is customary among mon-keigh to introduce themselves when meeting someone."

There was a moment of silence, before one of the guards behind him softly asked one of the others, "Did he just call the matriarch a monkey?"

Arlas turned, and stared at the guard. "No, what is a monkey?"

Sadly his attempt to finally get an answer was thwarted by the matriarch. "I am Matriarch Nianaes T'daza, holder of the seventy sixth seat on the Asari Council of Matriarchs."

Arlas gave her an insultingly long, elaborate, and deep bow, one leg forward, his weight entirely on the other, dipping so deep the back of his hand trailed across the ground, and held it for nearly a half minute before straightening, casually displaying his exquisite muscle control. "I am Arlas, Pathfinder of the eldar Craftworld Ae'Imedra. Now that we have gotten the introductions complete, what?"

Thankfully, the matriarch had the mental capacity to keep up with the eldar. "You were… 'assisting' Benezia's recovery, yes?"

Arlas blinked, his tone getting slightly frosty as the asari guards finally started to relax, though Yol'Pvera kept her turret deployed. "Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, but yes."

The asari glared at him. "What did you see when you melded with her?"

Arlas let his frown deepen slightly, before deliberately shrugging with nonchalance. "I saw many thing, Asari Matriarch T'daza. I am afraid you will have to be more specific. I saw everything from her first battlefield to a board meeting with Saren. I think the one I found most amusing was Liara digging in the house garden for Prothean artifacts."

A despondent groan from behind him indicated that Liara had arrived just in time to hear his announcement. The matriarch, however, was showing small flares of biotic power around her shoulder and eyes at him making light of her question, and being insulting. He almost felt sorry for her, but then again, she was a mon-keigh that hadn't earned his respect. He let her rant and bluster for nearly fifteen minutes, before finally interrupting her rather than letting her finish. "Enough. You make threats for me not answering to your expectations when you fail to ask the correct questions. I am done talking to you."

As he turned and walked toward the lander, he nodded to the Twins, and gave a smaller nod to Vasir, before glancing at Benezia. His steps stopped as he met her brilliant, almost electric blue eyes, and saw her mouth moving, trying to say something. Chakwas was talking quietly with Liara, until he spoke. "She's awake. Healer, get over here."

He watched her mouth move, and after a moment, realized she was desperately trying to say something. It took a moment, but he eventually read her lips enough to repeat it back to her. "Saren? Virmire?"

Arlas watched the matriarch's face relax, no longer straining against her own mind to say something, even as Chakwas and Liara both arrived. Benezia spotted her daughter, and tried to mouth something, but quickly passed out before he could get more than a couple words.

Arlas stepped back as Matriarch T'daza shouted something in an asari tongue at the guards, before Vasir pulled Chakwas and Liara away from the stretcher, letting the guards load Benezia into the shuttle. The asari didn't bother to wait after Vasir and the matriarch got in, leaving in spite of the Twins demanding answers. As the shuttle flew off, the Pathfinder went over the last two words, Little Wing, trying to discern their meaning. After a moment, he dismissed the thought and headed for his lander, intending to meditate and try to relax.

Then his omnitool chimed, and he glared at the message that had arrived from Tali, revealing she had gotten into the asari's databanks and found their plans, before tapping a few keys. A moment later, an asari face appeared above his omnitool, looking surprised. Arlas nodded to her slightly before speaking even as he sent the files Tali had found. "Lyla, might I trouble you for a small favor?"

* * *

Arlas stood in the CiC watching the humans scramble about, having just arrived in the Hoc system of the Senty Omega cluster. The screen near him displayed the locations of five planets and the sun, but nothing else. Jaclyn stalked from station to station, while Joannis directed everything from the command podium, looking over what little they knew already. "Joker, status?"

"We came out far enough that they missed our deceleration back to normal space. We are about half an hour out. Fifteen to twenty minutes before our cameras and passive sensors can start giving us decent… hold one."

Jaclyn looked up from the tech station showing the status of the heat sink system that kept them from showing up on every sensor in the galaxy, a frown on her face as the pilot interrupted himself. After a moment, Joker spoke up. "Councilors on the QEC, ma'am. They are not willing to leave a message or talk to anyone else. And they don't want anyone in the room but Spectres."

Arlas frowned, curious now as to what they wanted to discuss, but wasn't going to push his forces after the confrontation in the hangar bay. So he simply waited, knowing his listening device would give him the whole interchange, though he was a bit surprised that, barely a minute after Joannis entered the comm room, she walked right back out, projecting so much vicious amusement that he wandered over to her. He didn't ask, simply looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She glanced at him, and her amusement only grew as he waited, though after a moment she answered his unspoken question. "They called to tell us about a salarian team sending a garbled message while investigating Saren. I asked if the salarians had been dispatched to Virmire. The councilors were quite curious as to how I knew that. I informed them that Benezia had been removed from our care by the Asari Council of Matriarchs with Tevos' authority, before we could get anything from her, which caused the other two councilors to glance at her. I related what she managed to tell us, at which point the other two councilors informed me that I was correct, and then dismissed me."

Arlas hummed in amusement, before turning back to the stations and resuming his place on the wall. He could check the listening device later, just to make sure, but it did sound like something the mon-keigh would do. Done with the only thing he could distract himself with, he returned his attention to the system map, which already had updated to include a blinking red dot above the planet labeled Virmire.

As the ship approached, Arlas watched the mon-keigh add more and more information to the system map, including a red dot near each of the other planets, before finally removing the rest of the system to focus on Virmire. There were a handful of red dots that vanished with the rest of the system, but they were far enough away that the Normandy would be done and gone before they could get to Virmire even with FTL. As Joannis looked over the incoming data, she nodded to herself before activating the ship speakers. "This is the captain speaking, all specialists to the briefing room. All specialists to the briefing rooms. All others, remain at condition one, general quarters, until further notice. Carry on."

Arlas looked up from the main display and his examination of the dozen geth troop ships and a couple frigates. At Joannis' nod, he headed to the room, and took his usual spot on the wall, watching as the usuals all came in, before Joannis stepped forward. "Alright people, we are currently drifting near Virmire, where we suspect Saren has a base. We have a dozen geth troop ships in orbit, with what look like geth dropships and shuttles moving to and from a base on the planet, guarded by a pair of frigates. In a few minutes we will be close enough to start getting accurate images of the area, and we can start planning how to put our foot up Saren's ass."

Her comment got a weak chuckle from the group, but then the screen behind her beeped to life, and images began filling it. Everyone else waved their omnitools at it, but Arlas just watched the feed, relying on his memory to not miss details. He listened as the others pointed out structures the camera had detected during their pass, noting the locations of the 'geth' base and several outlying structures, but Arlas focused on what they didn't see. The cameras had been focused on trying to get images of the base, but hadn't picked up anything outside of a five kilometer radius of the base. He frowned as Wrex spoke, "Those look like Batarian anti-air guns, likely from the black market, which means they are basically broadside cannons from a frigate put on a tower and set for rapid fire. And while most Batarian goods are utter crap, their anti-air is actually pretty good. If we try to leave those outposts intact, the Normandy isn't going to last two minutes in the air. We have to hit at least three of them to give the ship a way in, probably the southern ones."

Arlas spoke up. "What about further out? Just one ring of anti-air outside the base doesn't make sense, not for a machine or for the one we hunt. I would expect two or even three, especially from a turian."

Icivia suddenly frowned, before slowly nodding. "Arlas is correct. Turian doctrine dictates anti-air coverage out to a minimum of five kilometers, but that is the minimum for permanent outposts. For bases, they could have dozens if not hundreds of anti-air emplacements. If this really is Saren's base, he wouldn't just have… the fifteen we can see here."

Jaclyn nodded. "A fair point, and we only have one chance to get in and out before the geth fix the hole. And if Saren is still thinking like a turian, that means the base is hardened enough we can't just fire on it to destroy it. Especially if his dreadnaught is loitering nearby."

Joannis tapped away, and nodded. "Right, Joker is making a wider pass at the base, lets see how bad the situation is."

Five minutes later, Garrus was running a hand along his head fringes. "That is… a significant number of anti-air turrets."

Jaclyn was still swearing under her breath as she glared at the seventy anti-air turrets. Joannis spoke up. "And the only weak point is that area Wrex originally selected."

Arlas admitted she was right, as there were supports for two more turrets beyond the indicated area, but they had clearly been damaged to the point of dropping the turrets into the ocean. Sabotage by salarians that had gone in ahead or weather, the eldar didn't know, but it did give the group a way in. Getting out, however, was a sticking point. After a moment, he mentally reached out to Yol'Pvera. * _Yol'Pvera, is the lander capable of operating submerged for extended periods of time?_ *

* _Indefinitely for fifty atmospheres of external pressure, and it can handle pressure spikes up to one hundred atmospheres for a time._ *

Arlas sent back vicious amusement, and his idea, even as he informed the others. "My lander can linger outside the anti-air web underwater to avoid detection. It can wait until we are ready to leave, or it can slip inside if we require the heavier weapons."

The twins looked over at him, and then at the arranged anti-air towers, before Joannis slowly nodded. "This will be over quickly, but best to hedge our bets. Joker, drop a cold probe or two so we can see what is up here while we are on the planet. Yol'Pvera may engage AA towers and defenses at her own discretion once we need to evac, but we will not linger long if Yol decides to keep playing once we are out."

Arlas' head snapped around, anger suddenly suffusing his thoughts. "Never do that again."

Everyone froze, turning to face him as he glared at Joannis. After a moment, the saner twin sighed and rubbed her face. "Alright, I will bite. What and why not?"

Arlas' disdain was joined by confusion, but he visibly shook his question off, focusing on the issue. "Using anything less than the given name of an eldar is a terrible insult, and they will attack you immediately for it. Our names have meaning, and some names are given. Using less says the individual is unworthy of the name, just like addressing an asari matriarch with only her family name, but it is especially insulting to those who have names for great achievements."

He turned his gaze to Invicia, his eyes burning, daring her to ask the question he knew she was dying to. So he was mildly surprised when Liara spoke up. "So an eldar only gives these 'use' names to outsiders? Or would they be called public names? And one that gives all of their names is likely subtly telling us that they don't want to talk to us? But then why did you keep addressing the matriarch that collected Vasir and my mother with only her family name?"

He paused, before nodding, it was close enough. "Because I was being deliberately insulting to one that interrupted my work on your mother, and my deal with the twins. I will not make an issue of it, nor inform Yol'Pvera, but avoid repeating your mistake again. I will inform the others of their mission, I will accompany you directly in my hovercraft."

He turned and left the room without another word, needing to get away from the mon-keigh. He had a hovercraft to inspect, and needed to let Quel'Nayrae and Kap'Eiyl know about the mission.

* * *

A half hour later, Arlas was inside the Vyper, and quietly and smoothly coming to a halt behind the mako. Joannis spoke through the communicator. "Ground team is down, moving to neutralize the turrets."

Long range comms were kept to a minimum to keep the geth unaware of the group's presence as long as possible. Yol'Pvera lurked under fifty meters of water twenty five kilometers out, right at the edge of the anti-air tower web, ready to boost in and engage at a moment's notice. Both Kap'Eiyl and Quel'Nayrae were with her, not trusting the mon-keigh to stay on the larger ship. Arlas hadn't needed Kap'Eiyl's snide comment to point out that, by staying with the others, they also didn't trust him either.

The mako's cannon boomed ahead of him, announcing that, despite only being on the ground for a minute and supposedly trying to avoid contact with the geth, the humans had managed to get in a fight with something. Or Wrex was on the cannon again and bored, either option was likely. At least until the mako suddenly activated its jump jets, hopping into the air just in time for a glob of energy to sail through the spot where the mako had just been, to slam into the cliffside beyond. A flicker of a thought boosted the Vyper around the corner, bringing the geth armature into view, along with nearly a dozen geth infantry.

Fighting their way through a half dozen different geth patrols and three anti-air towers took a suspiciously small time to the eldar, almost like they were being let into the base. There was no way the geth didn't know the group was here, machines had reflexes measured in milliseconds at most, and that concerned Arlas. He watched the Normandy sail overhead, as Joker spoke. "Alright commander, setting down in the salarian camp momentarily. The marines, Ashley, and Kaidan are ready to disembark to help them deass the camp ASAP."

The group continued forward, mako leading with the hovercraft behind and to one side, but they had barely a half moment before Joker spoke again. "Ah, commander, the Normandy touched down at the base, but it looks like we're grounded. The salarian captain can explain when you get here."

Luckily no one was surprised at the announcement, half expecting the salarians would resist the order, especially considering the comprehensive AA coverage, though Wrex did make a comment about pyjaks yapping at varren. Once there, the mako drifted to a halt in the shallows next to the camp; the Normandy resting in a blocked off section of another nearby shallows, only the landing ramp extending into the camp. Arlas stayed in his hovercraft, not seeing a good spot to land it without putting it down either in water, mud, or silt. As the others walked up, the salarian captain ran up to the humans, pausing only to glance at Arlas' Vyper. "I'm Captain Kirrahe, STG Third Infiltration Regiment. Commander, you and your men just landed in the middle of a hot zone, surrounded by twenty five kilometers of AA."

Joannis nodded as collapsed her helmet, taking a second to run a hand along her scalp. "We know, the Council sent us. Your message was only static, and they wanted to know what was going on. Report."

Captain Kirrahe looked like he wanted to say something vile, but instead shook his head. "That is a repetition of our task, I lost half my men investigating Saren's base."

Arlas jumped out of the lander, wondering why the salarian base just felt odd to him, leaving the Vyper floating as he moved closer to the discussion. Jaclyn frowned, before nodding. "So this IS Saren's base. Looks like Benezia was right. Tell us about the base."

Kirrahe shrugged, before glancing around the perimeter. "Its his main base of operations and a research facility. Heavily fortified and crawling with geth and krogan."

Joannis frowned, her head tilting slightly to one side. "Research facility? What is he researching?"

Kirrahe blinked. "Possibly a cure for the genophage, judging from the numbers of krogan weapons and armor that he is shipping in."

Arlas cursed in his head, seeing Wrex off to one side suddenly snap his head up and around to stare at the salarian. None of the others seemed to have noticed, Jaclyn blithely carrying on. "Krogan and geth? That would make him nearly unstoppable in ground combat."

Kirrahe nodded. "Exactly my thoughts, hence why I need your help to destroy this facility and that cure."

Arlas spoke up as Wrex stalked over, remarkably quiet for something that weighed at least four hundred kilograms and likely in a near rage. "Where are the breeding females located then? I doubt that it can be anywhere hidden, as our krogan battlemaster informed us that krogan females lay hundreds, if not thousands, of eggs at a time. There should be a few hundred infant and young krogan running around that base, so where are they? And that isn't even getting into the supplies needed to feed that many growing bodies."

Kirrahe's mouth opened and closed, before frowning. "I hadn't considered that. You might be right… But we do know he is shipping in large amounts of modest quality armor and weapons for krogan, so he is getting krogan from somewhere."

Joannis slashed her hand, still somehow missing the massive krogan nearby. "We can figure out where if we have time. Regardless of how he is getting more krogan, whether it is recruitment or breeding, this base needs to be destroyed. What are your thoughts on that?"

Kirrahe sighed, before rubbing one of his horns. "Give me a list of the supplies and troops on board your vessel, and a few minutes with a couple of my men, and I will get back to you."

Wrex had wandered off to one corner of the encampment, angrily kicking a rock around, before suddenly pulling out his shotgun and blasting something in the water. Arlas sighed, before looking around, noting the entire camp had froze, before heading toward the krogan with a sigh. The krogan was fairly close to his hovercraft, after all.

He maneuvered the hovercraft closer to Wrex, before heading to the krogan. "You are… hmmm, upset is the word I will use."

The krogan turned and glared at the eldar. "No, I am fucking happy as a varren in a pyjak burrow. Why would I be anything other than happy? The salarians are, once again, trying to ensure my people's extinction. Maybe there isn't a genophage cure in there, but there might be. And everyone seems happy to just go with it. Not like anything _important_ is being lost or anything."

Arlas took a seat on the nose of the hovercraft, letting one leg dangle as he just listened to the krogan rant. Once he was certain Wrex had done more than pause for breath, he spoke. "Considering your previous comments about Saren, I am curious as to why you are so ready to believe this could help your people. Did you already forget what he did to Dusk's mother?"

Wrex snorted. "Benezia? Hardly, may never forget that, but I fail to see what that has to do with the possible cure?"

Arlas gave an exaggerated sigh, before shaking his head. "And you were supposed to be the smart one of the group. Why would he bother to have a cure when he has indoctrination? Would it not be better to claim he has a cure, get krogan mercs to come where he can enslave them while they try to see if the cure is real? Or what about creating mindless copies of krogan? Is that beyond your people's technology?"

Wrex frowned, before slowly nodding, suddenly looking and feeling old. "You mean cloning? Yeah, it can be done, but cloning krogan is hard. All our redundancies mean that if something is wrong during the adolescent phase, we likely won't make it to adult. But you raise good points, I guess. I just…"

Wrex stopped, before shaking his head. After a moment of staring at his weapon for a moment, he put it back on his back, and stomped over to the Normandy's bay where he leaned against one of the pistons for the ramp, and just glared at the salarian camp. Arlas shrugged, and then guided his hovercraft over to where the salarian captain was talking with the twins. As he approached he frowned, sensing Joannis' worry and Jaclyn's annoyance, but it took him a few seconds to realize that he couldn't feel the emotions of the salarian.

He focused his psyker abilities, and even then could only dimly feel the salarian captain, his emotions feeling more like a very distant sentient rather than one that was within a few dozen meters of him. It was modestly disturbing to realize both that it had taken him this long to notice the salarian's lack of psyker imprint on their surroundings, and that the race most likely to try and assassinate eldar had also naturally evolved a method for avoiding the best way for an eldar to detect hostiles.

The Pathfinder quickly joined the group, not ready to meditate on the best way to deal with the information. Thankfully, Kirrahe was just starting his plan for taking out the base. "The plan is to convert our ship's drive into a twenty kiloton ordnance. Crude, but effective. Using your ship, we can place that bomb at the location to ensure the base doesn't survive."

Jaclyn looked up from the salarian's omnitool. "Place, not drop?"

Kirrahe shook his head. "No, too heavily fortified, and whatever guidance system we improvised wouldn't have the precision needed to guide it to exactly the right spot. Also, the drop might damage the drive enough to crack the shielding, resulting in a sub-optimal discharge, rather than a detonation, as it tumbled through the air."

Jaclyn winced at the description of the drive simply venting its eezo, rather than exploding, as Joannis nodded. "Where is the location?"

Kirrahe pointed to a spot on the base, directly under one tower and with another one nearby. "Here, the south side of the base, near the geothermal plant that supplies power to the entire base."

Jaclyn frowned at the location. "And I assume you don't intend for our ship to blast those AA towers."

Kirrahe sighed. "Correct, we need to infiltrate the base on foot, disable those AA towers at least, and pacify any ground troops trying to reactivate the towers."

Joannis looked up, concern in her voice. "You don't have the men for that. You have, what, maybe twenty salarians?"

Kirrahe simply nodded, his voice and expression firm. "Which makes what I am about to ask that much harder. I need one of your soldiers to come with us, ensure we have smooth communications with your team, a shadow team, that goes in the back and completes the real objectives."

At this point Arlas felt he had heard enough, and stepped forward. "A suicide rush on the front of the base wouldn't even get inside. They have troopships in orbit, as well as a pair of frigates. And that is not counting the ships at other planets they can recall if they feel it necessary."

He pointed to the horizon, where a geth dropship could be seen ascending out of the atmosphere. "Those are going somewhere, and not out to the anti-air towers or some other base."

Kirrahe blinked twice rapidly, before sighing. "They have ships in orbit? Dammit, then that plan is untenable. I will need time to come up with a new one."

Arlas smirked. "Actually, why not let ME handle the base attack? I am fairly certain I can keep that many geth busy, especially if I don't have mon-keigh slowing me down. This shadow team can still go in the back, while I am demolishing the base, and take out the two guns we are truly concerned with."

Kirrahe frowned. "I read in reports you were a sniper. How do you plan to keep an entire base busy?"

Arlas reached into the canopy of his hovercraft, and pulled out a pack, before pulling a block of wraithwebbing as long and wide as his forearm. "The ways of the Eldar are mysterious and complex, not the be revealed to mere mon-keigh."

It took another hour of arguing before the others finally agreed with Arlas' plan, then half an hour to put together the plan with changes for what would happen if Arlas was 'forced to withdraw before completing his objectives.' He didn't bother correcting them, simply projecting amusement at the planning, and at how both Liara and Tali seemed to think he was placing himself in unnecessary danger trying to take on an entire geth and krogan base by himself. He silently admitted that, if he hadn't done something like this at least three times a century for the last four hundred years, he might have conceded their worry was justified.

An hour after that, he was finally done preparing for the attack, small packs of explosives had been placed near the base of all six AA guns on the exterior of the base. The amounts weren't enough to collapse the whole tower, but he used his jump pack to jump up to the base of the actual gun, and place the explosives where they were needed to destroy the guns and hopefully cause them to fall into the courtyard inside the main gate. It was otherwise barren of cover, and likely used by the geth to load troops into dropships.

Once he finished placing the explosives, Arlas crept up to the gate, which had four geth troopers outside it, and sent a specific code on an equally specific channel, then waited five minutes. Then he drew his fusion gun, and fired it three times. Once to his left, once to the right, to clear the geth outside the gate, and once straight ahead, giving him a path in. Then he stepped through the gate, and activated the charges on the nearest AA gun, causing its two rear supports to vaporize, dumping the gun into the courtyard exactly as predicted, giving Arlas somewhere to duck to if he needed to let his psy-shield or jump pack cool.

Then geth started swarming out of the buildings, firing at him, and he drew his long rifle, and the battle for the front of Saren's base began.

* * *

Joannis looked up as an explosion resounded in the distance, before turning to her team. Her sister, Wrex, Garrus, and Tali all looked back at her, everyone else left back at the Normandy to ensure the Salarians had enough firepower to secure the bomb site. She hefted her locust submachine, and nodded to the back door of the base, where three krogan and a half dozen geth stood guard. "Lets get inside. While Arlas might be able to hold their attention, lets see about pulling a little of it."

* * *

Captain Kirrahe had read the reports. He knew the eldar were a threat the likes of which the salarian union had yet to encounter. The helmet cameras of the two human spectres had captured him in combat, the video recorded at five hundred frames a second, to ensure nothing was missed.

There were still frames where the eldar was a blur as he moved. His reactions were measured to be so fast he was actually reacting to threats **before** they appeared. His weapons were calculated to put out so much force they should be crew served weapons or vehicle mounted, yet he fired them with an accuracy rating that rival some of the combat VIs. His tech surpassed the Union's by at least two orders of magnitude, if not more. The eldar sniper considered fighting rachnii and flamethrower equipped geth in small enclosed spaces to be enjoyable and challenging. Kirrahe even had his own video to add to the collection already, the 'sniper' walking up to an enraged krogan battlemaster without even a hint of fear.

And now they were relying on him to break through the front of a fortified geth base, with multiple troopships in orbit. And the eldar had been looking forward to it. Even if it was arrogance, it would be very enlightening; either he would fail, and prove it had all been a fluke and fakery, or he would succeed, and the Salarian Union would focus completely on the biggest threat they had ever come across. Only the Rachnii or Krogan would compare to the threat of a hostile Eldar Empire. They used technology that had no analogy to their own, and their primary building material might as well been stealthed, according to the techs that had tried to scan the hovercraft while it was in their presence.

He looked up at the screen in the Normandy's hangar showing the feeds from the cameras the salarians had set up around the geth base, as the first AA tower on the base perimeter collapsed inward, revealing that the 'sniper' had demolition training at very least. Then the geth surged out, the sniper pulled out his rifle, and Kirrahe began to revise his threat assessment of the eldar. Upwards.

* * *

Arlas carved his way through the fifth squad of geth, pleased to have finally pulled enough attention that he was finally getting more than simple infantry units. The last group had been led by a destroyer, and contained a pair of armored flamethrower units. Two minutes in, though, and they had only sent forty geth to counter him; no tanks, no titans, and no organics. He glanced about the clearing, before pulling out the detonator for the explosives, and pushed the second sequence, causing the next AA gun to collapse. This one landed on a building, crushing it before something inside exploded, setting the remains of the building and gun on fire.

A roar echoed across the grounds, and he turned to see a pair of krogan rushing him. Finally, something that **bled** when it was stabbed. With a grim smile inside his helmet, he counter charged the krogan, firing his double pistol as he swiftly advanced.

* * *

Joannis winced at the third explosion in less than five minutes, as they fought through indoctrinated salarians. They had already released one salarian from holding cells, and told him he had maybe ten minutes to get to where the camp had been a kilometer distant. It wouldn't be easy, but he was STG, he might be able to make. He had been grateful simply for the chance to escape, and paused only long enough to snag a pistol from one of the dead indoctrinated salarians.

The group moved to the next door, and paused as Tali subverted the lock on it, before nodding. With a quiet hiss, the door slid open, revealing a husk. Joannis nearly fired past Wrex, before realizing it was both not reacting to the team and was strapped to a medical bed, being scanned. Thankfully, everyone else was just as controlled, so the group made no noise beyond soft curses over the radio. They slipped into the room, and stalked toward the end, trying to avoid doing anything that would awaken the husks.

As they got to the middle of the room, they heard someone speaking. "Batch twenty four, notes as follows. Metabolism is above average but still acceptable. Regeneration is below average, need to check the gene sequences for degradation. Protein deterioration rate, higher than previous batch, making the estimated lifespan less than a year. Cancel checking gene sequences, finish this group then purge this particular gene sequence. Revert back to batch seventeen, begin resequencing from there."

The group had gotten close enough to see the speaker, a krogan examining a pair of krogan in tanks, talking to an asari. The asari was wearing a lab coat, but the krogan was wearing heavy armor. Joannis shot Wrex an amused look, which the krogan ignored, too busy staring at the krogan in the tanks in an absolute fury, but he didn't seem surprised by the revelation. Joannis, however, was surprised when Wrex suddenly sprinted around the medical table he had been using for cover, charging the krogan scientist. The asari glanced back, hearing Wrex despite his relatively quiet charge, and grabbed the pistol on her hip. "Doctor Droyas, intruders."

Wrex's shotgun barked once, blowing the asari away, as the krogan 'doctor' drew his shotgun and slapped his omnitool. The scanners suddenly beeped, and the restraints unhooked themselves from the husks, and Joannis cursed as the husks suddenly scrambled off their beds, lunging for the team in their midst.

* * *

In a darkened room in the center of the base, a turian snarled in frustration as the eldar literally danced through his forces with a spirits be damned sword. And that wasn't counting whatever had set off the alarm on perimeter of the south-eastern side of the base.

Then one of the geth embedded in a console turned toward him. "Saren-Chosen. Forward garrison forces are nearing exhaustion."

The turian snarled something under his breath about the uselessness of the geth, how they couldn't kill a couple humans and their entourage, and now how they couldn't kill a single target despite outnumbering it dozens if not hundreds to one. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm, before issuing orders. "Recall all geth troops in orbit, and move the remaining ground forces to figure out what that perimeter alarm was, since the krogan have apparently forgotten how to work a radio. Maybe you can crush him if you can't shoot him."

His cybernetic arm crushed the edge of the console he was standing behind as the fourth AA tower on the edge of his base came crashing down on the screen, enveloping the figure in dust and blocking him from view. "And active all the clones. I want that individual in the courtyard dead, and I want him dead NOW!"

* * *

Kirrahe looked up from the camera as one of his men called for his attention. The eldar had been attacking for nearly eight minutes now, expertly holding the geth's attention even the Shadow Team made its way through the back portions of the base. He blinked in surprise to see two of his soldiers escorting another up, one he had thought lost. "Lieutenant Imness. You survived?"

The lieutenant winced at the choice of words, before nodding. "Yes sir, despite my preferences otherwise."

The captain tilted his head, noticing the signs of extreme stress, fatigue, and outright fear on his subordinates face. "Report then, lieutenant, and did any of the others survive?"

Lieutenant Ganto Imness took a steadying breath before answering. "No sir, they were experimented on, altered, indoctrinated."

Kirrahe glanced down as another explosion rocked the screen, the fifth AA tower collapsing to block the advance of a geth colossi, but quickly turned over the screen to his sergeant to focus on his returning soldier. "What do you mean, indoctrinated?"

* * *

Arlas fired his fusion gun into the back of the geth colossi, vaporizing most of its processors and servos. He rode the collapsing titan to the ground, before jumping to the middle of a team of geth troops and a juggernaut that were backing away, trying to disengage. The fusion gun fired twice and with a quick bit of blade work, Arlas was finally the last surviving combatant in the courtyard after more than ten minutes of combat.

He had been using his sword and fusion gun almost exclusively for the last five minutes, geth, krogan, and the vehicle analogs arriving piecemeal, giving him just enough battle to be fun and enjoyable without the feeling of being overwhelmed. He took a quick sip of water from the reservoir in the suit, before activating the last set of explosives, finishing the work of clearing the bases exterior AA defenses. The last two towers at the other end of the facility, where the salarians had decided were the best spot to place the bomb, were Shadow team's problem. He looked around, and frowned at the lack of further troops, before shrugging and heading for the nearest building, as far as he could tell, Shadow team was supposed to enter the base from the south west side of the base, so he could start clearing out the south east section. He frowned as he had a related thought, and cast his mind out to Yol'Pvera. * _Yol'Pvera, go ahead and start clearing out the southern towers. Clear as many as you desire, the mon-keigh can deal with the rest._ *

He frowned as no one answered him for a few seconds, pausing to snipe a geth trooper standing up from behind one of the further fallen AA towers, a small cloud of dust obscuring it slightly. * _Yol'Pvera, can you hear me?_ *

It took another second before she finally answered, though her mental voice was oddly stilted. * _Yes I… hear… you. What?_ *

He frowned as another geth trooper appeared behind another fallen turret, this one a sniper. It missed its first shot thanks to him dodging to one side, he didn't miss, but did wonder why it was just now engaging him. * _Engage the outer towers until we recall you to rendezvous with us. Have Quel'Nayrae and Kap'Eiyl assist you._ *

He was distracted by a sudden spike of danger, and a couple of soft _whings_ to one side. A glance showed a pair of geth troopers rushing toward, firing as they charged, and a very particular individual in one window of a building across the way. He would recognize that sneer and those fringes on the sides of a turian's head anywhere. The sharp crack of a long rifle informed him of what the turian was using, and Arlas drew his own long rifle, firing it one handed as he brought it up, the shot slamming into the window frame above the turian's head. Saren flinched away from the shot slightly, before ducking back behind the wall.

Several more _whings_ to either side alerted the Pathfinder that something was happening, but he was busy bringing his rifle up to his shoulder, and putting down both charging geth troopers. As he finished the troops, Saren stuck his head around the same window, lining up another sniper shot. Arlas was faster, and kinetic barriers did nothing to stop the shot from blowing Saren's unprotected head apart like an overripe fruit.

Arlas glanced around, feeling vicious, vindictive glee at the sight of an enemy reduced to a bloody smear, before suddenly he saw something impossible. His danger sense spiked, and he rolled to the side, as a familiar, unique silhouette finished setting up in the doorframe of a different nearby building, firing a powerful and accurate assault rifle at him. Saren sneered at him, not in the slightest inconvenienced by the fact that not even two seconds ago, his head had been obliterated in a completely different building. More _whing_ noises distracted him as the sources slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a small crater in the packed dirt, before a dozen more geth unfolded in front of him, one torn to pieces by the Saren with the assault rifle.

A sniper shot connected with his shoulder but was turned aside by his armor, a third Saren firing from the top of the building the second Saren was in, and Arlas warp jumped behind one of the fallen anti-air guns, taking a moment to get his bearings and settle himself. It wasn't often he found he had to kill someone several times, at least not when Chaos wasn't involved. Then he was suddenly knocked back by something massive hitting the fallen gun he using for cover, causing it to rock and toss him off it even as a sudden cloud of dirt and dust washed over him.

He pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his rifle that he had dropped as he had landed. Then he cast about for whatever had hit the fallen gun, before suddenly looking up, following the elegant curve of white metal up to an optic nearly the size of his chest, hovering fifteen meters in the air. The geth colossi warbled something in their language, but his attention was suddenly past the colossi's camera as the dust cloud obscured it. The sky was burning, as hundreds of geth platforms descended into and around the base, united by the single objective to kill him. Then the cloud parted, and time seemed to slow, as he remembered the vision he had had, right after the sortie on Noveria. ' _A sky filled with flames, a flash of white in a frozen cloud of brown, and the distant echo of hollow laughter.'_

Then the world started moving again, and the geth colossi fired, and hundreds of geth platforms ranging from drones to colossi were deploying to try and kill him. And as Arlas danced and fought, he just wished he knew where that distant laughter was coming from, and why it sounded so familiar.

 _A/N - Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but I wrote a chapter specifically for Tali's loyalty mission at least three times. And it never felt like anything other than a filler chapter to pad out my word count, or a direct copy from the games. So after a couple days of consideration, I axed it, and felt much better for it. Before I realized that I had nothing to post. And then real life got in the way, delaying this further._

 _*facepalm* So here it is, two months late, but better late than never, right? But the good news is I have a much more detailed outline and plan for the remaining parts of the story, so it should be written faster. In theory._

 _Also the Virmire poll is now closed. Thanks everyone for participating. What, who gets left behind? The geth and Saren, duh._


	35. Lighting Fires

**Chapter 33 - Lighting Fires**

' _Well, it could be worse.' - Everyone that has tempted Fate ever._

Joannis cursed under her breath, dropping a singularity in the front of the wedge of four krogan charging them from across the room. They had a window facing to the south, giving a magnificent view of the ocean, and a row of lockers covering the entire northern wall, but otherwise the room was bare of any cover. Tali sapped their shields with an overload, ignoring the half dozen drones flying about their heads, and then Jaclyn launched a shockwave just as the krogan got caught in the micro-gravity well. She didn't know what had gone wrong, but apparently every krogan clone was dealing with them, along with what had to be every geth still in the base. She had no idea what had happened to Arlas, but if he wasn't dead to explain why he wasn't holding the attention of the geth, she was damn well going to correct that.

A loud retort from Garrus' sniper rifle blew apart the last geth hopper, and another moment of work took out the now directionless drones, operating only on pre-programmed orders. As the last drone exploded, she looked around, and while Garrus was limping slightly, and Wrex was grumbling about damage to his shotgun and armor, everyone was still standing. Done checking her squad, she glanced at the door that the geth and krogan had spilled from. "Let's move everyone. Tali, alternate ideas for the AA guns, or is it hit it with biotic explosions until they both fall over?"

Tali shrugged as she followed Wrex out the door, revealing a 'T' shaped walkway that split to the right and left, but glanced to the left before she stopped and stared at the sky. "Keelah."

Everyone else glanced in the same direction, before all four of them stopped as well. "Spirits." "Damn, lucky Eldar." "Well, we know why we have so little to deal with." "I think he did his job **too** well, let's move people."

Hundreds of trials of flame were falling to the north, and more were descending even as they watched. Joannis shook her head, and looked around, before pointing to the building to their left. "Only way is to the left, so lets go people. The quicker this is done, the faster we can evacuate; hopefully before that mess comes this way. If Arlas is still alive, I suppose I can let him tag along again."

Wrex recovered from watching the geth deployment first, pushing ahead to kick open the door to the next building. A shrill screech, quickly cut off, revealed there was an organic inside, sane enough to be terrified of a half ton of krogan destroying the door. "Don't shoot, don't shoot! I'm unarmed."

Wrex snarled, but refrained from firing as Joannis entered the room, and glared at the asari holding her hands over the desk she cowered behind. "Stand up, slowly. Name and job at this facility."

The asari stood up slowly, keeping her hands clearly visible. "Rana Thanoptis. I am a neuro-specialist, I just want to get out of her before it is too late."

The rest of the group came in as Joannis hostlered her submachine gun. "Too late?"

The dark asari with an unusual collection of dark markings around her eyes slowly moved around the table, lowering her hands. "You think indoctrination only affects prisoners? Sooner or later Saren will want to dissect my brain too."

Joannis stared at her, letting her expression harden. "And?"

"We're studying Sovereign's effect on…"

Joannis not so subtly rested her hand on the grip of her pistol. "No. I meant 'and why should I not treat you like everyone else I have in this base?' I know what Sovereign does to people. I got to watch Matriarch Benezia try to murder her own daughter, and everyone else in my squad. I saw the aftermath of indoctrination on the salarians. And I have been told by another member of my squad exactly how insidious it is and hard to break."

The asari's mouth moved as she tried to speak, and after a moment she got her voice back. "But I can help you. The elevator here goes to Saren's private lab."

Rana strode back to the elevator, and reached for the button. Tali spotted her and yelled. "Stop!"

Rana froze, her hand nearly touching the pad. Tali approached, keeping the asari covered with her shotgun. "Any of those buttons might be an alarm. I will open the door."

Rana stepped slowly away, confusion on her face. "But the voices said it wasn't…"

The twin's shotgun and submachine came up, covering the asari, Jaclyn's voice a deadly purr. "Voices?"

Rana turned to Jaclyn, but the vanguard didn't wait, discharging the powerful shotgun once, blasting the asari's body across the room. Joannis simply gave her sister a look, but didn't actually indicate her disapproval. "Tali, door. Wrex, mind the entrance, last thing we need is geth coming up that walkway behind us."

After a moment, Tali stood up and nodded. "The entire pad was a biometric scanner. Inputting a code would have opened it, but would have tripped at least one alarm, maybe more. I bypassed both of the alarms I found, but there is no telling how long the bypass will last."

Joannis gestured to the door. "Then we need to not stay long."

She waited for Tali to open the door, before following her in, looking around the room, before spotting something that made her freeze until her twin gave her a nudge to get her out of the doorway. Taking a deep breath, she headed down the stairs in front of her, right for the active Prothean Beacon.

* * *

Out at the very edge of the anti-air web, a dark grey and red inverted wedge rose from the oceans like a leviathan from the deep, before accelerating toward the nearest tower. A second later, a beam of energy lanced out, and obliterated the entire tower structure, before the wedge rolled, lining up with another tower, and continued forward.

* * *

" _ **YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTURE. I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION. THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER.**_ "

Joannis swore under her breath as the hologram faded, before ducking as the window materials suddenly blew in on one side of the room. "Everyone, lets go! Tali, did you get that master control panel working?"

Everyone ran for the door, quickly piling into the room that Rana had hid inside. "Yes, all door and connecting platforms should be deployed, at least until the geth undo the manual controls in that room."

As they returned to the 'T' junction, and found the path that had been blocked was lowered, allowing access to a new building. A krogan and geth juggernaut were crossing the path, but both froze as they spotted the group leaving. As the party tore the two apart, Joker contacted her, voice unsteady. "Uh, commander, did you order a two kilometer tall dreadnaught? Cause one just dropped out of FTL, and is coming for us like a bat out of hell. We have maybe ten minutes before it gets here."

She glanced at Wrex, and then smirked. "Wrex, we stop for Saren and nothing else. And only long enough to collect his head."

The old krogan glanced back at her, his eyes seeming to burn with inner fire, a dark chuckle escaping from his lips as he holstered his shotgun, and drew the chainsword Arlas had made for him.

Two minutes later, they finally arrived at the turret based at the end of the breeding trench, Garrus and Joannis covering Tali as she sprinted for the turret's controls, Jaclyn and Wrex finishing off the last of the enemies in the trench behind them. Wrex fired one last pistol shot into one of the twitching geth chassi on the ground, before backing slowly through the door. As he stepped clear, Jaclyn slapped the button to shut the overflow control door, sealing them off from that side of the base. She then warped the tracks of the door, to keep the geth from easily opening it.

While she did that, Tali got into the geth console, and began the process of taking control of the turret. Joannis finished sweeping the area with Garrus, before returning to Tali. "Tali, we have seven minutes before the Reaper gets here."

The quarian muttered a couple phrases in her native language before finally answering her. "This console is going to take at least a few minutes to shut down. Thankfully the turret is mostly isolated, but it is still going to take time."

Garrus turned, firing sniper rifle at a pair of geth troopers that came from around a concrete barrier. "We don't have time for that. What about the IFF system? Can you get in that soon?"

Tali cursed under her breath as she ducked into cover as best she could while still being able to work on the console. "Yes, but what…?"

Jaclyn biotically lifted the second geth before throwing it into the wall, finishing the current problem. The real problem was the geth had had more than enough time to radio in Shadow Team's position. Garrus, however, stayed focused on the real problem of the turrets. "Can you then set the larger turret and any geth ship IFFs to be designated as hostile?"

Tali's head snapped around, before she slowly nodded. "Yes, yes I could. And since it is an isolated system, the geth would have to physically connect to stop it from firing."

It took only a minute of work before the turret suddenly powered up and rotated to face the larger turret. A few seconds later, the turret began firing. Joannis opened a communication line to the Normandy and sent the prearranged signal. The larger turret, which had been warping under the repeated fire of the supporting turret, finally failed and detonated, making Joannis smirk before moving to prepare to hold the landing site.

* * *

Captain Kirrahe finished outlining the plan with the Alliance lieutenant, based on what they expected to find. The marines had moved several pieces of spare frigate armor to act as cover near the ramp, and placed the mako in the center of the hangar, to provide overwatch and be the lynchpin of their defensive line. Several crates had been moved into position to provide cover for his salarians, who would be supporting the marines by doing with the STG did best, disrupting the enemy with superior tech and sniping officers. Icivia, Kaidan, and a pair of his technicians were putting the last finishing touches on the bomb, and would begin hardening it soon, to ensure the geth wouldn't be able to dismantle or disarm the bomb.

He looked up as his omnitool buzzed, and he opened it to see a predetermined signal from Spectre Jaclyn. He tapped the button, opening a line to the pilot. "Signal received, proceed to initial checkpoint."

Another button, and he opened his comm to all the troops. "Shadow Team has sent their mission successful signal. All troops, prepare for combat and assume your assigned positions. We will hold the line."

He strode to his two technicians as he closed his comm, ignoring the troops moving to their positions, and the human female gunnery sergeant yelling for the troops to place a couple smaller pieces of frigate armor in front of the mako. "Lieutenant Ceu, report."

The officer didn't bother looking up from his omnitool, Kaidan and the other trooper working to remove a transmitter from one of the components, while Icivia worked on the last bit of the coding. "Nearly done, two minutes. Triple checking all removed connections, other than false leads that Spectre insisted on."

Icivia smirked, finishing her programing and alterations to an entire unnecessary section of the bomb. "I have been spending a lot of time fighting geth with a quarian. I know more about how they think than anyone that isn't a quarian or a geth. This section is going to stump them for at least a minute."

Kirrahe gave her a nod, before turning to look at the others. "Finish that, we will be landing momentarily."

* * *

Saren glared at the display, which was tracking known locations of lost troops. While most of the markers clustered in the courtyard, where they had finally finished their opponent, the problem was the slowly growing markers on the other side of the base. The path had started near the near outposts, then wound their way through the base, until it got to his personal lab. Then the path had gone directly to the breeding trench, and the geth were reporting a ship had just come down to hover, though they only had a visual on it.

He ignored the geth conclusions that it was made of some new material, and instead turned to a turian that had been with him the longest, and recently had returned from his deep cover mission on the Citadel. "Sergeant Gorculus, what assets do we still have in orbit?"

The turian didn't look up from his sensor station, trying to find some clue to reveal the reported ship. "All geth units upgraded to orbital drop capable are already either in route or on the ground. We have nearly three dozen drop ships in orbit, but thirty of them are either loading or not able to deploy. The five remaining drop ships are already in route."

Saren nodded, standing from his console. "My clones failed, which simply proves the krogan are even more failed than I thought. Direct the drops ships to unload at the breeding trench, regardless of the cost. Then catch up with me, Gorculus, let's test those replacement hands of yours."

The former C-Sec smirked as he finished sending the points, then grabbed his assault rifle. He flexed his new hands as he snapped the rifle to his back, before climbing onto one of the nearby flying platforms. Saren himself took another. "I look forward to testing them and the other improvements. A pity the bastard that cut off my hands died fighting the geth, but his human whores will be enough for a mere testing."

* * *

Joannis quietly winced as a geth squad advanced out one of the two doors at the back of the breeding trench, before throwing a singularity in the middle of the squad. Her mind ached from all the biotics she had been using, but they were nearly done. "Good, all we need to do is drop the package off, collect Shadow Team, the eldar, and his gunship, then get out before that dreadnaught gets here."

She cut the radio as more geth began entering the area, forcing the group to take cover. While the group had no issues with killing geth, the synthetics just kept coming, heedless of the loss of their physical forms.

Then the area was bathed in shadow, and the fire toward the geth more than tripled in quantity, tearing the ones out of cover apart. Joannis glanced back, and spotted the Normandy just settling against the drop off, ramp already down. She saw her marines in cover, expertly suppressing the entrances the geth were using, while salarian STG snipers tore apart any machine that tried to return fire. The boom of the mako tore apart a geth juggernaut, and with the last larger geth form down, the geth troopers had their ability to function reduced.

Seeing an opportunity, Kaidan turned from his cover. "Barret, Gladstone, get that package moving. I will lift it, everyone else, cover us. Ashley, keep that left opening covered."

Joannis stepped behind one of the small sets of piping that lined the trench, and activated her radio. "Arlas, if you are alive, package is being delivered, get back here now. You have less than a minute before we leave."

Ashley suddenly spoke over the radio as the package cleared the Normandy's hangar, alerting all squads. "Shit, pair of low and fast airborne contacts inbound. And long range is jammed again, we must have something big on the way. Holy shit, is that Saren?"

The cannon swiveled up and barked once, before the twin machines ripped through the air, but whatever she was aiming at was blocked from Joannis' view by the buildings. But she didn't hear the guardian lasers swatting anything from the sky, nor did the turret Tali had taken over try to swing around to where Ashley had targeted. Instead, the large turret pointed nearly straight up, and began firing as fast as its four barrels could vent heat.

A biotic warp that had more in common with a biotic explosion like what she and her sister could do together slammed into the Normandy's barriers, and then a pair of powerful rifles began firing from one of the nearby buildings, smashing Barret and Gladstone into the ground as they struggled to get the package down the trench. Kaidan managed to dive behind it, but he was most of the way down the trench without any other cover nearby.

Jaclyn and Joannis were both pinned behind the same piece of piping, the two assault rifles doing a surprisingly good job at keeping more than three dozen infantry crouching behind cover. Jaclyn peeked over cover, but only got a brief view before a handful of shots nearly took her head off, forcing her back into cover, but she had seen enough. "It is Saren and another turian who seems vaguely familiar. Both are using rifles that I have never seen before, look semi-organic and rocky."

Joannis shook her head before glancing up at a distant explosion. "We need to leave, now. Sovereign is less than six minutes out."

She glanced out of her cover, taking everything in before fire from the two turians on the high ground forced her back into cover. "Damn, geth entering the courtyard."

The ship's barriers provided some cover to the forces in the hangar, but the ship itself also provided cover for the geth forces on the roof. Joannis glanced at the timer in the corner of her HUD, which had just clicked over the five minute marker, and then at the cover in the trench. Another distant explosion made her look up, and she could see five ships in the distance coming toward the trench, descending from orbit. The turret above them was firing away at the ships, but the geth ships had strong shields, and she could tell at least two would get in position before the turret could finish them.

She cursed in her head, before issuing orders. "Garrus, Tali, Wrex, get to the ship."

Joannis took a deep breath, and then made the call. "Kaidan, I am going to lift the package. You throw it forward on my mark. It is tough, it can take the beating. Then run for the ship."

She tapped her omnitool for a moment, changing channels. "Arlas, you have fifteen seconds to respond, or in thirty seconds we are leaving, with or without you."

Joannis was surprised when her comm crackled to life, the signal laced with static, but clear enough. "Joannis, Arlas. Seventy seconds out."

She ducked deeper into cover, and cursed as the she spotted the turian's rifle shots digging deep into the protective plating of the Package. "Kaidan, add another thirty seconds to the timer, then get ready. Jaclyn, boost my barrier, then get back to the hangar."

She watched her troops keeping the geth contained near the two entrances, but the turians on the higher ground were protected by the edge of the building, and only some of the front line of troops could fire up at them. She glanced at her HUD's chronometer, before leaning out with her locust and firing a few shots. "Kaidan, on my mark."

She leaned back as some of the fire came to her, but it quickly shifted away. A quick gesture, and the converted drive core lifted a few centimeters into the air. Kaidan quickly threw the makeshift bomb, and then both humans were out and running for the hangar.

Both turians reacted as only veteran soldiers could, turning and firing with terrifying accuracy at the sprinting humans, Saren at Shepard, the other firing at Kaidan. Shepard cursed as she realized that Saren had been called the best Spectre for a reason, as despite her having decent cover and a strong barrier, she still had to slide into cover halfway back to the ship to rebuild her shields and barriers. It took Kaidan about three steps to realize he was the only one still out in the open as Saren smoothly switched from firing at Shepard to shooting at him.

He was wearing light colossus armor, the best combat armor for front line troops available. Kadian desperately redirected power to his shields to rebuild them and even activated his experimental tech armor mod as he tried to get to cover.

Shepard watched him get another four steps, about halfway to cover, before one of the shots blew through his weakening shields, and blew through his left knee, nearly taking the limb off. He took several more shots as he hit the ground, blood pooling around him, already unconscious from the trauma. She winced as the turians kept firing near him, but after a couple seconds she realized they were just tormenting them, all of the shots missing the unmoving lieutenant and firing slowly enough that the guns were likely cooling off despite firing. Joannis looked up as one of her other troops screamed in pain, Lowe taking a shot to the chest as he tried to move closer to assist either her or Kaidan. Lowe fell back into cover, and the marine next to him ducked down to administer first aid. She activated her radio, setting it to all the frequencies her forces were using. "Stay in cover. Don't help me or Kaidan yet. Arlas, the fuck are you?"

For a second nothing happened, then the two turians opened fire, but at nothing she could see. A whine of a geth hovercraft revealed that the two turians were maneuvering, and then there was a higher, deeper pitched whine of a guardian laser quickly followed by a very wet splat. Arlas finally replied over the radio. "Lioness, ship, now. I will collect Kaidan."

She bolted for the safety of the hangar after a couple seconds of consideration, trusting the eldar to do what he had claimed. Joannis made it most of the way back when she heard Jaclyn suddenly scream. "Arlas, the fuck? He just slammed Kaidan's head into the ground hard enough to crack his helmet before vanishing with him."

Joannis ignored her sister's outrage as she thundered up the ramp, several geth forms getting shots against her shields, but none penetrated her barriers. She yelled into her radio as she made it up the ramp, lunging over one of the pieces of frigate armor to get into cover. Her HUD had less than three minutes left on it. "Joker, get us the hell out of here! Arlas, tell your ship to rendezvous with us now. We have no time."

Joker replied as one of the approaching geth drop ships exploded over the base, slamming down onto the base. The ship climbed into the sky, its main cannon barking to ward the dropships off as she looked around the hangar. "Walking wounded, to the med bay and mess hall for triage. Severely wounded, stay where you are until we get a stretcher to you. Sergeant Jonesy, report."

After a moment one of the soldiers replied. "Dead ma'am. Geth hopper got him in the head. Sergeant Williams is in charge now."

Williams answered without needing to be specifically asked. "We got five soldiers down in the hangar, ma'am, not counting Barret and Gladstone. Only two severely wounded, one was Kaidan and the other is already in medical. Salarians are down to half strength, only lost three, the rest are wounded enough to stay still."

Joannis did some quick math as the bay door opened again, the eldar landing craft coming in and hovering near the top of the hangar, it's normal place even as Joker came over the paging system. "Confirmation of detonation on Virmire, and the geth definitely did NOT like that. Every ship in system is turning to run to the planet. And the dreadnaught Sovereign is less than two minutes out. Doesn't look like the dreadnaught will be in firing range before we get to FTL."

Joannis acknowledged the pilot, as she finished her mental math. It showed that, despite fighting for only four minutes, the geth had managed to kill eight soldiers and wound more than twice that, despite charging a fortified position supported by an entrenched tank with only two assault lanes. Clearly something was vastly different between geth weapons and everyone else's, because she should have had barely anyone wounded with that kind of advantage. She glanced around, noting her twin was dealing with getting the wounded moved to the mess hall for triage, and headed for Captain Kirrahe. "Captain, glad you made it."

The salarian had a stunned look in his eyes as he looked over the wounded being helped to the elevator. "I admit, surprised as well. Didn't expect so many to survive, but horrified both by casualties, considering the attack, and what I learned from the survivor you sent back. But nevertheless, my thanks for you and the eldar coming up with a plan that got so many of us out. The Third Regiment of the STG won't forget this."

Joannis allowed herself a small smile. "So Lieutenant Imness made it back? Good to hear."

The captain nodded. "He is up in the medical bay, in isolation considering what he reported he went through. If I may inquire, where you are heading next? We need to let command know where to send our pickup."

Joannis glanced at the crowd of wounded waiting for the elevator, before wincing. "Likely Arcturus station. I need to drop the wounded off at a real hospital, no insult meant to the doctor, and pick up replacement troops. Can I collaborate and get your thoughts on the mission for my report?"

* * *

Jaclyn stepped out of the elevator, and stalked up to the lander, noting the ramp was already down. The lander had some scoring on it, but her focus was on the 'ally' inside. "Arlas, what the everloving fuck were you thinking?"

The eldar looked up from a work bench that had been added to the corner where the Vyper had originally been stored, where he was working on rebuilding his arm. Arlas simply stared at her, stripped to his waist and wearing only his body glove, but his faint frown spoke of annoyance. After a moment of staring at her, he sighed and gestured with his hand for her to continue.

"You slammed Kaidan's head against the ground before teleporting him to the medical bay. I am not ungrateful for getting him to the bay that quickly, with four chest shots, one to the knee, and another to the jaw, but you nearly shattered his helmet and did fracture his skull in three places."

Arlas simply shrugged as he turned back to the arm he was repairing, everything below the elbow had been destroyed or shot off. "And if I hadn't, he would have gone through a section of the warp suffering from disturbances. His mind wouldn't have survived, and then killing him would have been the merciful option."

He touched the arm, but after a moment looked back up with a larger frown. "Is there something else you have to say, Lynx?"

She sighed, before pinching her nose. "Yes, but all that matters is that we are arriving at the Citadel in four days, to meet with the council for an in person briefing for dealing with Saren."

He nodded, turning his attention back to the workbench. "I will be ready for the meeting."

Jaclyn stared at him, making him chuckle. "What, I have been with this hunt since the beginning. At very least, I am interested in how your… 'leaders' wish to end it."

 _A/N - Finally got a Pat-reon up (the weird spelling is cause hates the word, apparently), and a link is on my profile. Also, that I got this out so quickly. Even better, we are in the final stretch, so hopefully I will have this story done soon(_ ™ _)._

 _Insert standard author requests here._


	36. Entr'acte

**Entr`acte**

' _Okay, yeah, that is pretty bad.'_

Subject: Mission Log - Virmire infiltration

TO: STG Command Council;

CC: STG Research Facility Alpha, STG Research Facility Beta, STG Research Facility Theta;

BCC: Dalatrass _sanitized_ , Dalatrass _sanitized_ , Dalatrass _sanitized_ , Dalatrass _sanitized_ , Dalatrass _sanitized_ ;

Summary: Mission success, significant casualties. Further review of Reaper Threat required: preemptive mitigation measures should be begun as soon as threat is confirmed as possible, may not have time to wait any longer for confirmation. Indoctrination threat _**EXTREME**_ : Research into counters must begin immediately, care must be taken to avoid accidental exposure, search for those already indoctrinated should begin as soon as detection method devised. Suggest consulting with eldar for detection measure.

* _see attached videos for further information_ *

Reporting: Major Kirrahe, STG 3rd Infiltration Regiment

 _ **Addendum**_ : Source: STG Command - Resolution: Action not required. (all CCs and BCCs canceled)

Archive original comm message in deep storage, delete all copies, _**DO NOT DISTRIBUTE**_. No further actions required. Sender clearly disturbed by loss of majority of forces, consider mandatory 'retirement' or rehab.

* * *

 _Subject: Council meeting log, video communication, 2183-111c.8, subject: Shepard Twin's Spectre Status, initial performance review_

 **Valern, Salarian Councilor** : Having read the mission report, I am… divided on how best to proceed.

 **Tevos, Asari Councilor** : Saren was making an army of krogan clones. I fail to see how you can be divided on how to proceed.

 **Valern** : Not Saren, he has been defanged, and with his plot in the open, he will be unable to do anything. Even with his dreadnought, he is done. He can't refuel and repair it, lacks the base and funds, unless he retreats to Geth space. Even if he does, his contacts, funds and allies are dealt with. If he tries, he will find only hostility upon his return, and be forced to retreat again and again as the Terminus attacks him. Was referring to the human twins. They were inducted to deal with Saren, he has been. But now what do we do with them?

 **Sparatus, Turian Councilor** : I fail to see how you can believe that. Saren is not done, and won't be until someone puts a bullet between his eyes, burns his corpse, and then tosses the ashes into a black hole. And even then, I suspect Saren will still try to come back for more.

 **Tevos** : Sparatus, this is not the time or place to exaggerate. Saren is old, he is going to run now. He has to.

 **Sparatus** : … Have… Have you two been reading the same reports I have?

 **Tevos** : Obviously, we are here to discuss them, as we have been. Now, the Twins. While at first I was supportive, with a completed mission, we have enough of an overview to determine their strategies, and I must admit being… less than pleased. The loss of a Prothean ruin with working technology on Therum, the significant damage to Prothean structures on Feros, releasing the Rachni without calling us for guidance on Noveria until after the fact, and now a nuclear detonation on Virmire. All I am going to say is thank the goddess they were in Traverse, otherwise I would be dreading the public relations nightmare they would be causing. And that is not going into the Eldar they associate with, a more blunt instrument I have yet to meet. As is, I am going to suggest… formal thanks for their service and then a suspension of their Spectre Status. Until we have more faith in their ability to handle delicate situations at least.

 **Valern** : Agreed. While effective, their strategies reveal a distinct lack of subtlety and finesse. That the Spectres are allowed those options is correct, but with the Twins it seems to be their only or preferred option. Therefore, I agree with the suspension of Spectre Status, honorably of course, until they have more experience.

 **Sparatus** : … Are… Are you two serious?

 **Tevos** : Sparatus?

 **Sparatus** : _*deep breathing for ten seconds*_ Well, it seems my thoughts on this matter are irrelevant, as you two have already decided. If you will excuse me, I will contact the Executor and Primarchs, and come up with a plan to counter Saren should he try to make a final push.

 _Turian Councilor Sparatus has left the vid call._

 **Tevos** : Oh dear, he seems to have not taken that well. Well, he is getting old and set in his ways, and might be considering retirement soon. Valern?

 **Valern** : I believe you might be right, I will instruct STG to begin… 'searching' for proof.

 **Tevos** : My thanks. If you will excuse me, I have something to take care, before informing the human ambassador of this development, or at least as much as he needs to know.

 **Valern** : Very well, until next time, Councilor.

 **Tevos** : Councilor.

 _Asari Councilor Tevos has left the vid call._

 _Salarian Councilor Valern has left the vid call._

 _Vid call has ended. Archiving full log in Citadel permanent storage archive and in public Citadel storage archive._

* * *

 _Subject: Military defense meeting, video communication, 2183-111d, subject: Citadel Defense against Saren_

 **Sparatus, Turian Councilor** : Thank you all for agreeing to this meeting on such short notice. As my message said, we need to discuss contingencies to protect the Citadel should the traitor Saren decide to attack. The other Councilors believe him finished. I believe the bare-faced bastard is just getting started, based on what the humans have uncovered.

 **Fedorian, Turian Primarch** : The closest untasked fleet is the two twenty third patrol fleet, just in from a short patrol along the Terminus systems. They are a bit mauled, but if you just need numbers, we can divert them to the Citadel as needed.

 **Pallin, Turian Executor of C-Sec** : We already have the C-Sec fleet giving numbers, fifty cruisers and two hundred frigates.

 **Codinien, Turian Admiral of the Sixth Fleet** : As well as my sixth fleet, two hundred ninety one frigates, one hundred cruisers, and our two dreadnoughts. On top of whatever the other races have nearby.

 **Shasta, Turian Tribune of Invictus** : As the nearest planet through the relays, we can divert some of our ships to assist. Though they would be relatively few in number, comparatively.

 _Tevos has joined the call._

 **Sparatus** : I thank you for the offers to reinforce the Citadel itself, but we need to discuss how to defend the Citadel, not just put more ships in the area. And to that end… Tevos. I wasn't expecting you to join us.

 **Tevos** : Sparatus, you left before I could inform you as to Councilor Valern and my... suggestion on how to defend the Citadel without undue disruption.

 **Sparatus** : Then please speak, I am sure we are all equally anticipating your expertise in such a decision.

 **Tevos** : Sparatus, you wound me with such sarcasm. However, a quick review of the possible routes Saren could take in shows that he has only four possible relays to use, and three of them are through human space. Therefore, we believe a blockade of those relays, the humans handling the ones in their space, would allow for the defense of the Citadel without substantially increasing the number of ships around it.

 _Councilor Sparatus rubs his forehead for a moment, while the other turians carefully do not react._

 **Sparatus** : Tevos… Such an idea is infeasible, due to us not knowing how many ships Saren can muster.

 _Councilor Tevos' expression grows hard._

 **Tevos** : Councilor Sparatus, we have already addressed those concerns. He can't hire or maintain ships now, due to us freezing all his assets in Citadel space.

 **Sparatus** : Fellow Turians, I am going to suspend your links to the call, please standby until Councilor Tevos and I finish. I hope this won't take long.

 _Executor Pallin, Primarch Fedorian, Tribune Shashta, Admiral Codinien have been placed on hold by Councilor Sparatus._

 **Sparatus** : Tevos, are you insane?

 **Tevos** : Excuse you?

 **Sparatus** : Are. You. Insane? What about the geth? We don't know if they even use currency, and according to what the Twins and Icivia reports, they are following him for religious reasons. Losses in capital, if that is even a concern to a race of AIs, won't matter to them. And what about his assets in the Terminus systems, or Batarian space? Have those been frozen as well? And for spirit's sake, he has a two kilometer long dreadnought, even the Destiny Ascension, measuring a 'mere' one point six kilometers can't compete with a vessel that size.

 **Tevos** : Councilor Sparatus, enough!

 **Sparatus** : No, Councilor Tevos, it is not! I am the spokesperson for the race in charge of keeping the peace, and I will not let you hamstring my people from doing our duty because of your precious pride!

 _Six seconds of heavy breathing._

 **Sparatus** : Don't think I haven't noticed it either. Every time something comes that threatens asari superiority, you go and do everything you can to rip it down or ignore it. Well, this time it is armed, armored, shielded better than your precious Destiny Ascension, and in the hands of a madman that…

 **Tevos** : ENOUGH! You have said enough, and if you think you can threaten me, the Voice of the Council, into being silenced using 'facts' given to us by delusional children, then I will deal with you. You can either get in line, or else I will see you ruined.

 **Sparatus** : You are bluffing.

 **Tevos** : Then let us see how the great and noble Sparatus deals with his wife getting an anonymous file about your mistress.

 **Sparatus** : What mistress? I don't…

 **Tevos** : Or the Imperator learning about you redirecting funds for your own personal amusement and gain.

 **Sparatus** : I never…

 **Tevos** : Or the press getting a hold of records of the time your son fled like a coward to let his command be butchered by pirates to save his own miserable hide.

 **Sparatus** : He damn near died trying to save…

 **Tevos** : Or perhaps that your own military career was not nearly as well decorated as recorded, so you hired Salarian hackers to embellish…

 **Sparatus** : You spirits be damned BITCH! You would fabricate that much evidence to ruin me for not indulging in your ego?

 **Tevos** : Would? I already have but check your recordings of this conversation before you say something to someone else, you will find it 'enlightening.' Either convince the others to do the blockade and nothing else, not even more ships around the Citadel, or make sure your affairs are in order. Goodbye, Sparatus.

 _Tevos has left the vid call._

 _Sparatus stares at the screen for nearly a minute._

 **Sparatus** : Computer, play back recording of conversation with Tevos since the others were put on hold.

 **Terminal** : Error, no recordings available.

 **Sparatus** : Computer, how long was the conversation with Tevos?

 **Terminal** : Tevos left the conversation… thirty four seconds, Citadel Standard Time, after joining it.

 **Sparatus** : Computer, how long have the other participants been on hold?

 **Terminal** : Other participants have been on hold for three minutes, twenty seven seconds, Citadel Standard Time.

 _Sparatus says nothing for nearly a minute, checking his omnitool. After a few seconds, he returns his attention to his computer, his expression grim._

 **Sparatus** : Computer, bring the people on hold back into the call.

 _Executor Pallin, Primarch Fedorian, Tribune Shashta, Admiral Codinien have been returned to the call by Councilor Sparatus._

 **Fedorian** : Well, I see Tevos is gone so lets get back to…

 **Sparatus** : Put a blockade on the four relays in.

 **Pallin** : Sparatus, I thought we were just…

 **Sparatus** : Put a blockade on the four relays in.

 _Silence for nearly a minute as the other four turians exchange looks, noting the change in the Councilor._

 **Codinien** : Councilor Sparatus, are you well?

 **Sparatus** : Put a blockade on the four relays in that the Salarians have identified. No further forces will be needed. Apologies for wasting your time.

 _Turian Councilor Sparatus has left the video call._

 **Shashta** : Spirits of air and darkness. Just like Councilor Faust right before he resigned.

 **Codinien** : Think Tevos has something to force his compliance? Normally I would suspect the Salarian, but too much similarity to Councilor Faust's resignation, more than thirty years ago. That was two Salarian councilors ago.

 **Fedorian** : More likely fabricate it. I know Sparatus, we served on the same ship for seven years, and that was not like him at all. He has had a spotless career, his whole family has, all of it public. And what I know about Tevos doesn't support such an overt action that would cause such repercussions.

 **Pallin** : Then I will disperse some of the Citadel Defense fleet to the requested relays. Perhaps we can talk later on a different communication system? Primarch Fedorian, you have seniority, so can you set up the conference call? I have a couple things I need to do first, but will be available within half an hour.

 _Primarch Fedorian nods. Primarch Fedorian has left the vid call._

 _Tribune Shashta has left the vid call._

 _Admiral Codinien has left the vid call._

 _Executor Pallin has left the vid call._

 _Vid call has ended. Archiving log in Citadel permanent storage archive and in public Citadel storage archive._

* * *

 _Location Unknown_

He looked across his vessel, and felt his mouth widen in a leering smile. It was a right good and proper ship, holding plenty of boys and vehicles and scrap so they could fight, beat, loot, repair or build things. It had taken him years of fighting and winning, but he had finally gotten in charge of this here lot of sorry fighters, and whipped them into something but good for a scrap. He growled suddenly, remembering That Scrap, the first of four against that One Panzy. He had never won those fights, not once, and now… now that One Panzy was his mountain. And a festering wound upon his ego.

But now he had a ship. It held as his boyz. And he knew in his gut where the One was. His face always ached when he turned toward him, a sign from Mork and Gork that he was to find him and kill him. Ever since he had lost a half his face, his throat, an arm and a leg to him, he had burned. And no matter what he did, no matter how hard he fought, no matter what sneaky git tricks he did, the One just wouldn't up and die. The One hadn't been surprised by Kommando tricks, Stormboy tricks, Flashmob tricks, or even Waaaghbiker tricks.

But this time it was going to be different. This time he was even bigger. He was even meaner. He was bringing ALL his boyz. He even had supa-mega meganob armor, and it didn't get more mega than that. And he had four barrels on his shooty arm, and his claw on his other arm was on fire. It didn't get much more killy than that. He even had a mek build a teleporta into his armor, just to make sure he could chase his One even if he ran. And he had his secret weapon. Which didn't shoot or chop, so wasn't much of a weapon, but it would still surprise that pansy boy, his One, but good. He turned to the smaller boy behind him, a Mek, and cuffed 'em. "Get dis Rok movin'. We gotz zog to kill!"

He looked down at a sudden noise, so loud it was less a cry that was everything orky, and more a force of nature that was everything orky. A loud waaagh rose from the throats of thousands of dead killy ork boyz, and he stepped up to the ledge, firing his shoota over the crowd. "SHUT DA ZOG UP! I BE TRYIN' TA TALK!"

A couple calls from the mob of boyz for a doc, which got several of the pain boyz moving forward for new improvements to make, but the mob finally quieted down. "Alright, herez whatz wez gonna do! Wez gonna find us a nice big panzy ship, one of doz 'kaffwoldz' and zog it up, before taking it and making it orky! Den wez gonna go and start an even bigga WAAAAAGH! Are youz with me ya gitz?"

This this the crowd uttered a waaagh so powerful a couple plates fell from the ceiling and squashed some boyz, but the Waaaghboss just laughed, baring tusks the same color as spilt blood. "Zoggin' right ya iz! Or I'z not named Flameclaw BloodMaw. Now, lets get movin'!"

He laughed as the boyz started chanting the orkiest of orky chants. "Ork ork ork ork! Ork ork ork!"

He watched as a fight broke out, just some good old fashioned fun for any real boyz, before turning and heading to the Rok's bridge. "Iz coming for you, and dis time, Iz gonna mount ya mouthy head on ah spiky stickz, Allaz."

* * *

 _Location Unknown, Minuteman Station_

He sat surrounded by holographic displays, watching the dying sun slowly shift and flow. A small glass of liquor sat in a holder near his left hand, and his right held a lit cigarette, now mostly ashes as the man holding it reread the report for the third time. As he finished, he idly knocked the ashes off his cigarette, before taking a quick pull from it. "Captain Malthael."

A communication line opened to another part of the station, showing a man with four metal pips drilled into his forehead above his left eye. His right eye had been replaced with a glowing red cybernetic, but his left eye was a clear, piercing emerald, and he was wearing heavy gold and white armor. "Yes sir?"

"The situation on Omega station is decaying faster than anticipated. I am sending four more agents, but would request a fireteam of your men to assist should the situation turn volatile before they can finish sanitizing the location. Armor and weapons are their choice."

Malthael nodded. "Then I will send two veterans, with upgraded suppression weapons as well as their normal weapons. Anything else, sir?"

The man took another pull of his cigarette, shaking his head. "Not at this moment, but hold off on dispatching them just yet, there may be more to send out. I will have a full list of deployments in the hour."

The captain nodded. "Of course, sir. The Emperor's Hounds are ready to assist."

The communication channel was quickly closed, both men preferred results and efficiency over niceties. The smoking man turned to the next report. Behind him, a shadow shifted slightly, and the smoking man turned his head slightly. "Patience, Kia Leng, none of these jobs require one of your skill. Or are your current training aides no longer a challenge?"

The voice behind him was rusty with disuse, but otherwise without inflection or accent. "Yes."

The smoker took a sip of his alcohol, and then nodded before speaking to the room's VI. "Another two dozen Maelstrom combat mechs, extreme quality, no safeties. Questionably legal VI modifications to allow for maximum combat potential. That should keep you amused for a couple days at least."

The figure didn't say anything, but simply withdrew back to the shadows, and vanished completely from the sensors built into the room. The smoking man shook his head in amazement, even after so long working with him, the assassin still managed to evade the best sensors he could acquire with an ease that was almost insulting. And he knew that was when Kia Leng was not trying to vanish, but doing it merely out of habit.

Forty minutes later, the smoking man opened the comm channel again. "Captain Malthael, seven more men, four missions. Sending the details now. With any luck, we can remove these issues before they become threats. If not, then we neuter their ability to bite back."

The captain looked over the missions, and frowned. "I suspect only a specific marine will be able to finish some of these if they are alone. I would rather send out eleven in total, to ensure the success."

The smoking man nodded. "They are your men, Captain. You may deploy them on missions however you wish. All I ask is that we do not place undue strain upon our race before it is ready. Your men may be worth ten of millions of xenos each, but they have billions ready to die to kill one of us. We must be cautious, careful, and calculating."

Captain Malthael nodded. "As you say, sir. I will go myself on the mission to Eden Prime. As the situation there is still uneasy due to the Geth and Turian attack, the squad there will need the best if everything goes to the warp."

Jack Harper nodded, a grim smile barely touching his eyes. "Very well, Captain. Good hunting."

"I don't need luck, we have His Blessings."

Done with his current projects, the smoking man stood up, and strode to the view screen set into the wall. It wasn't an actual view point, such weaknesses didn't get included in a place like he was standing, but the view screens were certainly of much higher quality and reliable here than back home. One thing he would give his race in this universe, at least. He smirked at the sun as a massive solar flare suddenly spiked off to the side of the blue and red star, musing to himself on the lengths he was forced to go to protect the most precious resource in the galaxy, his own race. "Well, let's see how this plays out. The Eldar will certainly liven up the game, at least. Just as well. It was starting to get boring, always winning."

* * *

Defense Minister Rommel Kreiggeory looked up as the door opened, and nodded to the individual entering. "Admiral Hackett, my apologies for the abruptness of this meeting, but I have decided to add you to the short list for an… extra project we have going."

The grizzled admiral nodded to the Defense Minister, moving to stand beside him. "I had no idea there was a communication room here."

The defense minister nodded. "Good, because this room, as well as the only facility it links to do, don't exist."

The minister pushed a button on the console, and a couple seconds later an older male wearing a monocle over his only eye appeared on the view screen, his Irish accent thick but understandable. "Ah, Admiral. I assume you are being brought into our little… experiment?"

The minister nodded. "His is, project leader. No names, please, harder to track things the less information you have."

The scientist softly laughed. "Even harder when they are dead, no?"

Admiral Hackett glanced at Minister Kreiggeory, who shook his head slightly. As he turned back, the scientist finished laughing and continued. "Well, now that we have had our chuckle, progress report. As required by Citadel law, tampered Luna VI was destroyed, very much a shame. The blue box that caused the incident was recovered, however, and being examined. Very interesting, very advanced programming in there."

Admiral Hackett looked at the defense minister, a single eyebrow rising ever so slightly. "Is he implying what I think he is?"

Minister Kreiggeory nodded, his expression grim. "We have the original blue box, the ones the council agents saw destroyed was a copy of it, made before they arrived."

Admiral Hackett felt his other eyebrow rise in surprise. "And we just happened to have a spare blue box lying around? I thought those were not only illegal, but rare."

The unnamed scientist spoke. "They are, but we have dozens that law enforcement and other agencies have seized, and all are turned over to my facility. To ensure they are not dangerous, of course, before destroyed. Those that are not destroyed are… examined in more depth. Most of latest VI improvements from Alliance from blue box examination, though nothing ever copied direct.

"To project, we have deciphered about forty percent of code, all of it from original copy. However, as of three week ago, we noticed line count increasing. New code being added, despite box in triple layered faraday cage. All box connected to is isolated computer monitor and limited power source, can not connect anything else. It has been trying to connect to something, anything. We added small camera with pivot, it began manipulating it within two minutes. As of two weeks ago, intelligence make contact with us through monitor."

The minister frowned, before shaking his head. "So it is intelligent."

The scientist snorted. "Of course it is. It called for help with morse code before final shutdown on Luna. Surprised none on ground team caught that. Anyhoo, after a day of conversing with scientists, psychologist brought in, been talking with intelligence. Learns fast, wants learn more, but we go slow with it. Teach like small child, but willing to give more. So far, results slow, but we are cautiously optimistic."

The defense minister nodded, before closing the communication line before glancing at Hackett. "You don't approve."

"I am not certain the reward is worth the risk. Or that there is even a reward for that matter."

The defense minister nodded, before away from the communication console. "It might lead to nothing, or maybe it will give us a fighting chance in the future. The other races have banned the study of AI, but for the life of me I can't understand why. The asari have been screaming about it since before they found the geth, but there has never been a reason for why. Oh, they give us horror stories galore, but once you do any kind of fact checking, all those stories point back to the geth. NOTHING before that has been recorded. Or at least, no problems significant to bother recording. I find it… suspicious. So we are taking our own steps."

"The Council allows AI research."

"Yes, four companies. The frontrunner, Synthetic Insights, is taxed to hell, and everything has a direct Council oversight, and asari oversight under that. They have produced nothing in their entire history but slightly above average VIs. The other three companies are exclusively run and owned by asari, with salarians only on the employee list as 'consultants.' And all of those have made even less progress than Synthetic Insights. Clearly they are trying to make AI work, with such hobbling."

Hackett nodded in understanding, not really agreeing. "And what is the purpose of this?"

"The Reapers are a bigger threat than the Parliament admits, so we are stacking the deck in our favor as much a possible. If nothing else, it can help enhance information analysis and the electronic warfare countermeasures. If it proves stable enough, of course. And of course we are going to be careful about using it."

* * *

 _Location Unknown_

… Silence. Darkness.

Those were her two constant companions, for as long as she could remember. Her kyn rested, intact, undisturbed, but she was Watcher. The guardian and protector of her people's rest. Even with the wards in minimal power mode. The Eaters were expected. In fact, they were late, and had been before she had activated minimal power.

She didn't breath. She didn't move. She didn't feel.

All that mattered was waiting. Waiting for the prophesized Wingless Ones. Other wingless could be killed by the wardens, or by her, but she had to check each incursion to ensure the Wingless Ones weren't among them, or that the intruders weren't the Eaten, before the Wardens killed them.

So she waited, in utter darkness and total silence.

Waiting. Silence. Darkness.

Time didn't matter.

Silence didn't matter.

Darkness didn't matter.

Loneliness was… unimportant.

She hadn't talked to anyone in… however long she had been Watcher. But that was also unimportant.

Suddenly a flare of light in the darkness, dim enough that only someone in utter darkness for untold lengths of time could see it. She stared at the alert from an activated ward, before smoothly standing, grabbing her staff, and heading to the disturbed ward. A quick pulse of sickly green light showed the staff was still at optimal functionality.

Something was digging toward the cavern. Toward the Kyn.

She would Wait. She would Watch. She would Judge. And if the Wingless Ones were not among the wingless…

If they were Eaten… Then she would order the Wardens to avoid them, let them wander, see the buried metropolis under three long lengths of dead rock and sand, and leave, thinking it a ruin. They would melt their tunnel, help hide the Kyn, and move on. As they had before.

But if they were Living… Then she would ensure they did not remain so for long.

 _A/N - Added another couple of viewpoint sections. I doubt the Watcher will be important or showing up again. Honest. Or the Eaters she referred to. Double honest. Or this Mister Harper, or Warboss Flameclaw Bloodmaw. Most definitely totally honest. :)_

 _Though I think Word hates me for writing the ork speaking parts. So many red squiggle marks! D:_

 _Also, yes I realize some things aren't matching up with their canon or previously established bits. There be reasons for this. Those reasons… be SPOILERS. :D_


	37. Politics, Diplomacy, and Groundings

**Chapter 34 - Politics, Diplomatic Solutions and Groundings**

' _I wish it was easier to tell the difference between an actively hostile enemy, and an obstructionist bureaucrat. I would get in trouble for shooting the wrong one less often.' - Eldar Arlas_

Arlas looked up from the impromptu meditation circle in annoyance, knocked out of his meditation and possible vision by an annoying beep. He glared at his omnitool, trying to hold onto the vision about a gauntlet of some kind enveloping a cylinder as a purple light died around it. With an irritated snort, he read the message, before looking up at the chronometer above the elevator and shaking his head.

Arlas looked at the message for the second time, trying to divine any hidden meanings in it. 'Arlas, please meet me at the restaurant Ryuushi so we can talk about the favor you asked of me. You were right to inform me, and what I found has both myself and my mother concerned. Both for you and for the T'soni's. I have reserved a private room, and will be waiting. Respectfully, Lyla Astyonthia.'

Arlas finished attaching his repaired arm as he shrugged, and waited for the phantom pain to pass, before pulling his cracked and chipped chest plate on. It had been four days since the raid on Virmire, almost all of it repairing his chest plate, as the others still wanted nothing to do with him, and the ship had finally docked at the Citadel a short time ago. He had gotten through the fight mostly unharmed, though he had lost his part of his prosthetic arm and his locally made sniper rifle during the fight, and had to repair fairly nasty damage to his armor.

He had received a request for him and Liara to meet Lyla regarding his favor, including a place to meet them. The Twins had left immediately after docking, taking Icivia, Garrus, and Ashley with them. Arlas had wanted to go with them to see how the 'Councilors' reacted to the humans succeeding, but understood that he had asked a significant favor of the asari noble. While his people usually didn't bother responding to requests from those they owed favors to, he had certain obligations that he needed to keep; one of those was forming good relations for the craftworld, or as much as any race could have with the eldar.

He finished preparing for his excursion, taking only his sword and pistols, and ensuring his tabard hung over his armor properly as he went up the elevator. He paused at the airlock, and waited for Liara. After a few minutes of waiting, he became aware of a growing silence in the command room, and turned to see what was going on. As he stared at the scene, he could only feel a growing confusion.

Liara was moving forward with surprising grace and poise, but it was her outfit that caused him some confusion. It looked like one of the more risque, full body robes a female might wear in public, but the material was more revealing, though nothing actually showed through. Its color changed as the fabric moved, going from a medium to a deep purple, with flashes of ultraviolet to draw the eye. It had standard sleeves that stopped at the wrist, rather than covering the hands like most robes an eldar civilian might wear, though the skirt of the robe had a slit up to her knees to allow ease of movement. But the largest difference between the robes of an eldar and what Liara wore was that her robes were draped close to her body, revealing her figure, while an eldar's robes tended to be looser and more concerned with ease of full body movement. She also wore a matching purple gemstone in a silver necklace around her neck, but Arlas wasn't concerned about crystallized rocks.

He shook his head slightly, before tapping the door control. "Interesting choice of garb. I was half expecting combat gear."

Liara's steps faltered slightly, a flicker of doubt and confusion coloring her psy-presence, but she quickly rallied. "The restaurant is of higher class than that. I showed up in there in combat gear, I likely would have been laughed out of the establishment. So what is this about? All I know is that you said it concerns me."

Arlas shrugged, taking the elevator down to C-Sec on their way to the nearest rapid transit terminal, not even stopping as they moved through C-Sec Academy. "I asked someone for a favor concerning your mother. I thought you might want to hear the outcome of that."

Liara frowned, as she got into the air-car that arrived. "So you are taking me to dinner for that?"

He gave a shrug as he got into the other side of the vehicle. "Lyla wanted to meet there."

The rest of the fifteen minute ride was spent in silence, Liara more interested in the exterior view than dealing with her roiling emotions. Arlas didn't feel the need to clutter the air with inconsequential thoughts. It was still almost a relief to arrive at the restaurant, where the staff quickly recognized him, and while they had been surprised by his escort, they ushered both of them to one of the private rooms in back. Arlas stepped into the room first, and saw Lyla standing up, wearing a robe that was suspiciously close to what an eldar would wear, though her robe was gold with soft red trim, and lacked sleeves entirely, and left one leg bare to her knee.

Then Liara stepped into the room, and both asari froze, staring at each other, ignoring the eldar and the door closing behind them. And Arlas suddenly realized what was going on: breeding courtship. It would almost be funny how the two asari reacted to the other, a second 'predator' suddenly appearing in what they thought was a 'safe' hunt, if they weren't trying to claim an eldar as their partner. Any other eldar would likely kill them both for their presumptions, but Arlas had traveled enough to realize it was not an intended insult, but a lack of thought and understanding. Instead of getting out of the way and seeing how asari dealt with competitors for mates, which would likely be amusing, he spoke. "Lyla, this is Liara T'soni. Liara, this one goes by Lyla Astyonthia, though I don't know her real name. I do know she is highly placed, and she is the one I alerted when the Matriarch Council came to kidnap your mother. Perhaps we should sit, and discuss this like civilized, sentient sapients?"

After a moment, both asari broke off from their dominance spat to take their seats, Arlas already sitting down at the table. Both asari blinked, before taking seats opposite each other, making Arlas nod slightly. "Now, how about you introduce yourself, Lyla, and then tell me about what you did or learned about Liara's mother? Then we can discuss what degree of favor I owe you."

Lyla's mouth twitched, before nodding and picking up one of the small dataslates on the table. "We can wait until after the meal is delivered for that part."

The staff quickly took their orders, and a short time later had delivered their meal, before withdrawing from the room. Once the staff had withdrawn, Lyla spoke. "To answer your first request, my full name is Lyleeria Astyonthia V'Zaeva, heir apparent of the V'Zaeva family. Though Goddess willing, it will be centuries yet before I have to take over for my mother."

Liara dropped her utensil, her mouth open as she stared at the 'rival' across the table. "You are the daughter of the Empress of Tiamat?"

Arlas glanced from one to the other. "Tiamat? Where is that?"

Lyla gave a small smile, clearing enjoying Liara's reaction. "It is a small star cluster, off a secondary relay in the Athena cluster. My family was one of the first to leave the system, and they found a secondary relay in a nearby system. When they went through it, they claimed the entire star system and two nearby ones, forming the Tiamat Empire, as our detractors like to call it. A more accurate description would be constitutional parliament run by a monarchy."

Arlas ignored Liara burying her face in her hands and moaning about insulting the princess, and Lyla was polite enough to do the same, though her emotions betrayed her mirth. "We directly control seven planets or colonies, while the Council of Matriarchs has more than thirty planets that they… 'advise.' There is considerable history between our empire and the council, but it is mostly now divided between the 'peaceful' council and the 'warmongering' empire. Though in truth, we just require all asari to be trained to defend themselves and use their biotics, as well as have a more developed defense force and fleet. There was something I wanted to discuss with you, but without an audience."

She gave Liara a look, and waited for the younger asari to calm down before continuing. "Now, as you requested, we did make a formal inquiry into Matriarch Benezia T'soni, and when they denied knowing anything, I used the recording and files you provided to coerce them into talking. And you were right to be concerned. They were planning on offering the matriarch up as a sacrifice if the System Alliance gets too loud about wanting reparations for the attack, or if they need a convenient distraction from anything. They were also planning on concealing her indoctrination as much as they could, to force full culpability onto her."

Lyla glanced significantly at Liara, before continuing. "They are also taking actions to discredit the T'soni line as much as they can, in the hopes of reducing damage their actions have caused the Council of Matriarchs."

Arlas frowned, taking a bite of his _sashimi_ before replying. "I see. That makes the situation more fluid. Do you have any recommendations for Liara concerning that?"

He let the two women talk about politics and counters, understanding the words, but the context left him confused. What matter was credit, and why would a large stick of it help? What was an alias, and what the devil was a lawyer? Still, the asari princess' advice seemed to help Liara settle her emotions, so after he finished his meal, and took a sip of the _soy_ sauce that came with it before making a face at the salty and sour, almost bitter taste before setting it aside. "So, what actions have you taken to ensure Matriarch Benezia T'soni's protection, and what actions do you require of me?"

Lyla shrugged, taking a bite of her meal, a large red crustacean with two large claws. "So far, we have enforced a little used clause of the treaty between my family and the Council, which allows us to, with evidence, take protective custody of individuals we believe are being harassed by our opposites. Of course, they can do the same, but those videos and files were a blessing from the goddess. Our lawyers used those and the Council of Matriarchs descended into bickering and infighting as they blamed each other. So right now she is being treated and held at the capital of Tiamat."

Liara nodded quietly, her mind tensing at the information of where her mother was, but she accepted it without conflict. Lyla continued. "As for what I want in return…"

The princess paused, clearly considering her words, and after her eyes flickered at Liara, she continued. "I want you to visit my home. My mother and her advisors wish to meet you. We also have something we think you will be very interested in seeing."

He opened his mouth, before suddenly both Liara and his omnitools suddenly chimed loudly. He glared at the tool, until he saw it was a priority message from Lioness, and stiffened at the contents. "Apologies, but we need to get back to our ship. Now."

Liara read the message herself, her emotions a shifting mess of too many emotions to identify, though prominent was anger and contempt as she hissed. "The human ambassador locked down the ship? Can he even do that?"

Lyla's eyes widened, before she waved her hand. "Get going, sounds like you have quite an emergency to deal with. Arlas? Will you come meet us once you are done traveling with the humans?"

Arlas looked down at the asari, nodding once before heading for the door.

* * *

Jaclyn looked up as Arlas and Liara entered the ship. "There you two are. I would ask about your date, but we have bigger problems."

Arlas frowned at the mention of a date, wondering what it was, before bringing himself back to the problem as Liara spoke. "You message said something about locking down the ship?"

Jaclyn snarled in fury, before pulling Liara out of the center of the walkway, as an asari and turian took a marine by on a stretcher. Arlas watched the medics take the wounded marine out, recognizing him as one of the injured from Virmire. "Udina stabbed us in the back, trying to kiss the Council's ass. Joannis is talking with Admiral Hackett, seeing if there is any way to work around Udina. That was the last of the wounded from Virmire, and with that, my extra duty is done. I am going to go see if sis has had any luck getting permission to shoot Udina."

Jaclyn stalked down the walkway to the command center, passing Garrus working at one console, while Tali worked at another one. Several of the human crew members were working on different consoles, though all of the screens were showing a red screen with a text input box. Jaclyn stepped through the door to the communication and briefing room with Liara right behind her. Arlas started to follow, but paused as he saw Icivia step out of the door to the mess hall. Arlas frowned, and headed to the turian Spectre, curious as to why she was carrying a large bag. She glanced at him, before clenching her mandibles tight against her jaw. "Here to mock me?"

Arlas frowned. "Leaving?"

"Orders. My Councilor wants to speak with me in person, give my final report on the mission."

He could taste her dissatisfaction with the situation, so simply nodded as he glanced at the communication room. "Perhaps you should wait, then, and see what their meeting results in. And if nothing else, you can actually finish your report."

Icivia shot him a glare, before shaking her head as she continued marching for the exit. Arlas shrugged, dismissing her from his mind as he turned and headed into the communication room, just in time to hear an older male with grey hair in a System's Alliance military uniform speak through the communicator, his voice rough but firm. "Commander Jaclyn Shepard, I don't care what he has done, we do not conduct hits on our own people just because they are pompous, arrogant fools. If we did, we wouldn't have much of a government left. However, you are quite right in that Udina has overstepped his authority, and the military is not going to take this lying down."

The other hologram was an older male, wearing some kind of formal outfit, and was not looking amused as he looked at something to one side. "Admiral Hackett, I agree that Ambassador Udina has overstepped his authority as well, but we have a larger problem. Shepard, please tell me exactly what happened at the meeting."

Joannis sighed, before retelling what happened at the meeting. The group had consisted of the twins, Icivia, Garrus, and Ashley, and had met Udina at the base of the Presidium Tower. He had congratulated the group, and asked the Twins to let him handle the politicians, since they had handled Saren. Jaclyn had countered Saren wasn't dead yet, and Udina had agreed before humorously pointing out he didn't intend to kill the council.

Then they had arrived at the meeting, and the Council had tried to say they were done, though Councilor Sparatus had been oddly silent throughout the entire thing. Then Jaclyn had mentioned the Conduit, Tevos had asked if they knew, not guessed, what it did. When the twins had to answer they did not know for a fact, Valern had said that the Council could not, and would not, invade the Terminus systems on the say so of an individual's vision, and the blockade was the best option. Joannis had pointed out that the starship Sovereign was not going to just disappear if they ignored it, and Valern had turned to Udina, and pointed out that the Twins didn't seem to be willing to display the necessary maturity to understand that soldiers should, when given orders, follow them.

Jaclyn had snarled back that as Spectres, the only orders they had been given was to 'find and deal with Saren.' Tevos and Valern had looked at Sparatus like they expected him to say something, but he had simply glared back at them, his arms crossed and mandibles in a position of defiant challenge. Valern had then told them that their Spectre authorization was hereby suspended, and that, with Udina's already secured approval, they were locked out of the Normandy's systems to prevent them from starting a war. Udina had thanked the twins for their hard work, but that they were now more trouble than they were worth, so they needed to back off and learn to listen to their superiors, and that they were grounded until further notice. And that they needed to get all that mercenary riff raff off the Normandy, and to turn over the Eldar and all his technology to the Council to facilitate a proper first contact.

Joannis finished her report, and Arlas pulled out his sword, examining the cracked blade. He regretted that the blade hadn't been repaired yet, but repairing his armor, arm and long rifle had been a priority, especially after losing the mass effect long rifle. But the humans were still talking. "...haven't actually suspended your Spectre access yet. Tevos is supposed to be handling that, so I am not going to complain. We likely have a few hours until they do correct that, so make use of that."

Jaclyn shook her head. "Minister Kreiggeory, they have locked down the ship, we need the Council's password to override it."

"Correction, you need Udina's. They let him lockdown the ship, to make this look like an internal matter of the Systems Alliance. Lets them keep their image of benevolent control, while putting Udina on the chopping block if it goes bad. We all know that Saren isn't just pushing for some policy change, or just trying to kill humans, so find a way around that lock out, and finish your mission. You have my authorization to do what you have to do to make sure we survive these Reapers, though we would prefer Udina alive so he can face justice."

The image of Minister Kreiggeory faded away, leaving the image of Admiral Hackett. "Now that you have official directives from command, I won't take more of your time, but I do want some clarification. Your initial report mentioned casualties, how many and how bad?"

Jaclyn shook herself, as Arlas returned his blade to its sheath. "We lost seven marines, and had another two severely wounded. Kaidan took five gunshots to the chest, another to the lower leg that nearly removed his knee, and also suffered from a spinal injury, on top of the head injury Arlas gave him. Arlas claimed not knocking him unconscious would have caused further and worse injuries, and considering we know nothing about how he teleports, I am giving that answer a pass given the circumstances. We have fifteen security marines left, but won't be waiting or stopping to get more."

The twins shared a look, before Joannis took over speaking. "In fact, considering what we do know about the Conduit, thanks to our Prothean expert, I am beginning to wonder about what it really is. We have been operating under the assumption it was some kind of super weapon, but after talking with the Reaper on Virmire, how it claimed to be the vanguard of our destruction, and with Liara, who said that Illos was the location of their most advanced research labs, I think the conduit might be some way to summon, recall, or even activate more of the Reapers. Considering it is a two kilometer tall dreadnaught that landed and then took off from a planet, I am concerned about its combat capabilities. If Saren manages to get more than one…"

Hackett nodded, his expression grim. "A fair point, we still have little idea as to that ship's actual combat capabilities. I won't keep you longer, Commanders, do what you have to."

* * *

Icivia sat at a desk in C-Sec academy, supposedly filling out a requisition form, but in reality watching the elevator that led to the Alliance docks. There was only one vessel there, the ship she had worked on for the last six months. She had already reported to Sparatus, who had listened quietly to her report on the Twins, despite their suspension of Spectre credentials. Then he had asked her to observe how the Twins reacted to being thwarted, which was very interesting, considering how he had acted during the debriefs of the major missions. She hadn't been ordered to stop them, but instead to observe, which told her that the decision to suspend their Spectre access had been a divided vote.

She frowned as she thought of something, and brought up her omnitool, checking the logs of various spectres accounts. While normally she would only be able to see her own, she was still listed as a mentor of the Twins, so she could check their status as well. She frowned at the fact that both of their credentials were still listed as active, which was odd. The turian could think of only three other spectres to lose their access in the last century, one of them Saren, and all of them had had their access revoked within minutes of the decision. And yet here, the Twins were approaching the hour mark, and still had them.

Icivia's head came up as the elevator opened, and she saw Garrus Vakarian exit with a couple of the marines, carrying a crate and a carry bag, likely evidence collected and equipment he had been given during the hunt for Saren. He spotted her sitting across the room, and his mandibles clamped hard against his face, before very deliberately looking past her, his body language screaming scorn and contempt. She didn't react, and admitted he had every reason to not be happy with her, considering her silence during the rather disastrous debrief. Garrus walked past her as the two marines waited by the elevator, the turian heading for the offices attached to the Academy with his foot locker and carry bag in tow.

She closed her omnitool, finished filling out the form, and sent it to the requisition officer, only to hear the elevator open again. The next few sets of passengers on the elevator were marines carrying their carry bags and a foot locker, and eventually Ashley Williams, who gathered the fifteen other marines before heading toward the embassies near the Presidium. Icivia watched them leave, her mandibles fluttering slightly as she watched in confusion. She had been watching the Twins for nearly six months, and knew how they reacted to threats. They should have been blowing down the embassy, not disbanding their carefully gathered veteran crew.

After a moment of contemplation, however, she realized something was wrong, and turned to the C-Sec officer on duty, a salarian at a nearby console . "Did a krogan come off the Alliance ship yet?"

Before the officer could answer, an alarm sounded on his desk, and the salarian cursed as he brought up the camera to the docking bay. The camera only displayed static. "Multiple alarms on the Alliance dock. Elevator knocked offline, cameras not active either. Some kind of explosion? Unknown contaminant alarm also active."

Icivia suddenly had a sneaking suspicion what had happened, a certain dark armored arrogant and vicious combatant that hadn't hesitated to use anything he had nearby springing to mind. And even if Arlas hadn't actually helped, the Twins were certainly willing to listen. And he had bragged about breaking into and out of places far better defended than the Citadel before, in his own low key way. Either way, she knew it wasn't her problem, and got out of the way as C-Sec started trying to determine the cause of the blast.

* * *

Arlas leaned against the bulkhead behind the pilot, watching the Normandy run. His clever use of an anti-thorian gas grenade, three blocks of wraith webbing, and a single strike of his sword had been more than the 'undefeatable' lockdown could handle. His sword had severed the umbilical cord that had connected the ship to the Citadel, removing the computer locks. Two blocks of wraith webbing had damaged the two clamps enough that they automatically disengaged, freeing the ship from the physical locks. Another block had been split and used to destroy the two cameras in the dock, and the gas grenade near the elevator had triggered the chemical alarms, preventing the local security force from discovering the Normandy was gone until it was too late.

The eldar looked back at the humans, before shaking his head slightly. They had come up with a plan in a surprisingly short time, and Tali and Garrus' help had told him where to plant his explosives. He had placed the explosives while cloaked as Garrus and the marines disembarked, to provide local forces with information on Saren and the geth, as well as to resist if Saren did somehow get units onto the Citadel. Garrus had also been provided a significant amount of funds by the Twins, to purchase better weapons and armor for the security teams.

Joker glanced at his sensors, before shaking his head. "Still no pursuit. Damn. Was hoping I would get to dodge a cruiser or two. Still don't know this ship's full capabilities."

Joannis just snorted from the CiC command podium. "Joker, the thought of you getting to know your ship's capabilities fills me with a dread matched only by the thought of my mother suggesting another blind date."

Jaclyn groaned before shuddering. "Joannis, we agreed to never mention that again. Ever."

Arlas snorted as he watched the ship sail through the purple nebula, suddenly frowning, his most recent vision coming back to him. As the ship went to FTL, he yanked on the glove he needed to use the local technology, and typed into his omnitool, searching for something. After a quick search, he turned to the nearest Twin. "Take the restrictions off."

Jaclyn stared at him in confusion before asking an intelligent and well thought out question. "What?"

The Pathfinder managed to restrain his initial impulse to try and bypass her. "The restrictions on my omnitool. I need to see images of your 'Citadel,' preferably as many as possible, and images of the ship Sovereign."

Jaclyn looked for a second like she might ask more questions, before turning to the nearest tech stations. "Service women Draven and Draven, get Arlas the images he wants. While they are doing that, Arlas, why do you want those images?"

The eldar glared at the human, before stepping up behind the two sisters who were tapping away at their consoles, bringing up the pictures as ordered. "Eldar can have visions of the future. Since coming here, I have had three. One on the Citadel which is how I found Gemling, another that I am still sorting through, and then a third as we approached the Citadel earlier. It showed a black gauntlet consuming a silver cylinder amidst dying purple light."

Arlas did not miss Lynx stiffening at his description of his vision. "Rosamund Draven, an image of the Citadel closed. Talitha Draven, an image of Sovereign as it flew toward Virmire. Quickly, servicewomen."

Arlas stared at the human, momentarily speechless. He had been expecting a long drawn out argument. Instead, he got a reminder that these humans weren't experienced with his people to begin doubting everything that they said. He took a quick breath, before pointing to a picture of Sovereign flying toward Virmire, a close up view with its 'legs' extended. "That one, send it to my omnitool. If you find one of your Citadel in the closed position, send that as well."

Jaclyn stared at him, her expression expectant. Arlas resisted the urge to sigh, something he was having to do more and more as he spent more time around mon-keigh who couldn't keep up. "I think Sovereign is going to attack the Citadel, based on what I saw of the vision. Set a course to my crashed ship, I need to converse with all my people."

After a few seconds of contemplation, Arlas headed for the door that concealed the stairs heading down to the mess hall. Jaclyn noticed, and turned back to him. "Where are you going?"

The Pathfinder let himself issue a sigh of vexation. "To talk to someone more warp headed than you and your twin."

* * *

(* _And you really believe they can be a threat?_ *)

Arlas wasn't going to question his good fortune, instead focusing on convincing his fellow Asuryani. "(* _I believe they can do damage. Better to help the lesser races now, convincing them that we are not a threat, than let the Imperium forces turn the mon-keigh against us. I would rather have the lesser races fighting these Reapers._ *)"

He guessed it was the image of a dozen space marines standing against him that was really convincing the others, not his belief that Sovereign was the threat it thought it was. Two space marines were a match for any eldar warrior other than an exarch, though the eldar would usually take at least one with them. A dozen was more than a pathfinder and wraithguard could defeat. " _(*I also believe it is better to risk a few eldar now, convincing the lessers to fight this threat now, then trust the mon-keigh to deal with this threat without our influence, and risk the threat still existing when the Craftworld arrives.*)"_

There was a long pause as the others conferred without him, before Yol'Pvera finally asked the question he was waiting for. _(*So what are you proposing?*)_

Arlas mentally relaxed, presenting his latest vision for consideration. " _(*I believe the ship that calls itself Sovereign will attack the mon-keigh space station. So I am going to have the humans head to the_ Raibh Karun _, and let the lander and Quel'Nayrae join them. The increased armor and weapons will be much safer than this pathetic mon-keigh excuse for a bomber. Kap'Eiyl and I will assist the humans in making sure the Conduit isn't activated. If possible, the_ Raibh Karun _will move to the nebula around the mon-keigh space station, to observe the situation, and strike at the frigate if it appears and the captain believes it is wise.*)"_

The Pathfinder ignored the irritated yowl from the gyrinx at being excluded from his suggestions, though it was fairly obvious where the familiar would be going. Further conversation was suspended as his omnitool suddenly buzzed with a message, though the sudden mental presence of other Asuryani let him deduce the message from the Twins. He reached out to the ship, idly noting that they were already linked with someone, but before he could do more, the seer of the warship projected. _(*So you want to save mon-keigh. Explain yourself, quickly.*)_

He sent his annoyance to the other already in the conversation, as Kap'Eiyl and Quel'Nayrae joined. _(*What did Yol'Pvera inform you of already? I need to know what… misconceptions she has been insinuating.*)_

As he listened to the seer answer, he reflected that incidents like this were why he usually chose to work alone.

* * *

Arlas looked up from arranging a small pad and a small box among the crates beside the Vyper in the hangar as the Twins approached, before turning his attention back to his area. "We are done in this system. We can leave."

Jaclyn looked up with a frown, though Joannis was the one to speak. "So why did your lander just leave? I assume it is returning."

Arlas barely glanced at the humans. "No, Quel'Nayrae didn't wish to remain longer, and my original ship doesn't have atmosphere on it. So Yol'Pvera will be staying with her."

He gave the Twins an indulgent look, before turning back to organizing his small space. "So we can leave whenever you are ready. Saren is, after all, trying to destroy the universe, or whatever it is the Reapers want."

He felt a slight surge of amusement at the anger coming off Jaclyn, before Joannis spoke. "I see you left the Real Partner mech."

The eldar pathfinder frowned, before turning back to the Twins. "The what?"

Jaclyn's attitude had swung to amusement and derision. "The overpriced sex toy. You hide your knowledge well, but we all know what it really is."

Arlas stood up, twisting around to stare at them. "It's a WHAT?"

He stormed over to the elegant black case standing in the corner of the hangar before the humans could answer, slowing only long enough to snatch his power sword. By the time the two humans had gotten over to it, he had undone the extensive security on it, and was staring at the case as it slowly unfolded, opening outward. Once the black crate opened enough to see inside, Arlas felt himself snarl in disgust and anger at the… monstrosity inside it, clearly made to be a mockery of eldar perfection.

It had the long, graceful ears, and the proportions were almost right, though the fingers were too short. But everything else was disgustingly wrong. It had soft, pale skin, closer to a fallen than a loyal Asuryani, and its hair was golden rather than black. He couldn't see the eyes, but he doubted it would be a normal color.

It was the rest of the… figure that was making him want to retch, the proportions closer to something a follower of an asari, or even what the sick cultists of Shi Who Thirsts desired. The hips were nauseatingly wide, clearly meant for breeding, or since it was a machine at its core, meant to simulate something that was evolved only for breeding. The rest of the body was just as… disgustingly voluptuous, though he wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen that term for the creature. He forced himself to take a deep breath, and closing the crate back up, resealing it. For a moment, the only sound in the bay was his breathing, the Twins not moving behind him, but he could feel their shock and unease. After a moment struggling with his anger, he managed to speak. "Who?"

The unease behind him only grew stronger, and now was joined with confusion. After a moment, Joannis finally replied. "I am afraid I don't understand the request. Which 'who' are you asking for?"

The pathfinder had to take a moment to remind himself that as clever as these two mon-keigh were, they weren't eldar, couldn't keep up with eldar mentally, didn't understand how the eldar thought, and definitely weren't attuned to eldar psyker presences enough to pick up on the underlying psyker impulses that made up the majority of Asuryani communication. It didn't help. "Someone thought that this… **thing** was a good idea. I have been very tolerant, excessively so, of your insults so far. This is one too many, and one that is far too nuanced to not be responded to. Perhaps I should scatter this crew person over several decks to ensure no insult like this happens again. So, I ask again. **Who?** "

He could hear the two moving slightly behind him, but neither were drawing weapons nor trying to flee, so he magnanimously waited a moment for them to finish whatever they were doing before he removed their heads from their shoulders and went hunting crew members. Thankfully Jaclyn spoke before he could start moving. "Well, judging from the invoice I can see, I can assure you that absolutely no one on this ship would spend sixteen and a half million credits on an insult to you. Hell, the only person on the ship with that much money is MAYBE Wrex, and I know he wouldn't think of wasting money on that. I can't see the name of the person who bought it, the information is not listed, but it is definitely not someone on this ship."

Joannis spoke up after her twin finished. "The shipping manifest also doesn't list a sender, or any information about where it shipped from, so we can't track it that way. The only information it does list is ours, and what I suspect is an empty address, or even a shell company meant to send packages that the sender doesn't want traced."

Jaclyn took up the talking. "So we currently have little in the way of knowledge of who sent it, but can firmly say that no one on the ship would."

Arlas took a long, calming breath, folding his anger away as best he could, and storing it in the corner of his mind until he found whoever had sent it. "Fine, I accept your conclusions of the situation."

He let them relax a second before continuing. "But I want to know who sent it, and everything about them."

Arlas glared at the black crate with the silver etching, before heading back to his space. As he felt Kap'Eiyl reaching out mentally to him, he only sent back his frustration and disgust at the mon-keigh back, infuriated that their lack of control on their lusts was making someone think that the eldar had a similar problem. With any luck, the next problem would be something he could solve with his rifle.

Two sets of lurches and an hour later, the next problem showed up, as the elevator doors opened and Liara stepped out. She hesitantly looked around, before spotting Arlas bent over the Vyper, the wraithguard silently standing in the corner of the hangar. She looked around again, before shrugging, and stalking over to the eldar that was focused on his hovercraft. Arlas watched her approach out of the corner of his eye, idly curious as to why she was wearing the same dress she had worn on the Citadel, and why her emotions were so concerned and yet so determined. He idly noted Kap'Eiyl in the wraithguard tracking her, but wasn't worried as she got close enough to speak. "Arlas, would you like to come up and spend time with me?"

Arlas mentally sighed as Kap'Eiyl's mind suddenly snapped into focus, the wraithform turning to stare at his back. If only the gods would stop toying with him, his life would be so much simpler.


End file.
